Possessions
by Kobayashi Shiki
Summary: A few years after dust has settled Naruto continues to strive for his dream, making unexpected allies along the way. Tragedies bring people together but will they also break them apart? DISCONTINUED.
1. Travel and Error

AN: Just a warning that situations may pop up that you might not like, I'll let you know beforehand if something specific is going to happen in the chapter so you can avoid it if you want or read on greedily, the choice is yours. You should know that there might be heavy Yaoi and Yuri situations along with gore as things progress there will also be straight pairings so don't worry. This fan fic was intended to be a PWP but because of my inability to write anything without meaning it now has a story to back it up so it will go somewhere. While there is a story it isn't set in stone, it's practically idea – brain-fingers-keyboard-screen but I do edit and such so don't worry.

**KEY**: bold Italic dream

Italic thoughts

**Chapter 1**

Thunder and lightning, for some reasons these two things always relaxed him. He wasn't sure if it was the Kyuubi residing within him or if it was something else but when he sat there by his window like he was now, just staring up at the flashing sky he would feel his muscles relax and tension drain from his body.

He sighed and leaned back a little.

The Chuunin exam had been and passed, it still shocked him a little to find out that out of all of them only one had become a Chuunin, Shikamaru. He was sure that he would pass and if not him then at least Sasuke but both of them had failed and he still didn't know just how you passed or failed in the third exam, as far as he knew all you had to do was impress a bunch of old guys.

His mind ran over everything that had happened since he had passed his test and had taken his first big step towards becoming Hokage.

With a snort Naruto moved away from the window and over to his bed. Tomorrow he was supposed to do training with Jiraiya so knowing him he would need to be at full strength.

He shrugged out of his clothes and put on his night clothes before sliding into bed.

It wasn't long before he was fast asleep and dreaming.

Naruto awoke with a start.

He had been dreaming about the day he would receive the Hokage title but suddenly the dream had faded into black and he was in a place he instinctively knew.  
  
The first time he stood there he was lost but it wasn't long before he figured out where he was. He remembered standing there in front of the dark cage feeling the heat that the creature emanated, he also remembered talking to it but he couldn't remember what was said.

He took a deep breath and yawned, shrugging off the encounter before getting up and beginning his daily routine.

Within half an hour he was out the door and heading for the top of the Hokage monument where Jiraiya had told him to wait.

"Nah....where is that old pervert." Naruto wondered out loud.

He'd been waiting for nearly two hours now and he was starting to wonder if he'd come at all.

Pain exploded at the back of his head and he reeled forward from the blow but caught himself before he fell. He stayed like that for several minutes while he waited for his tear blurred eyes to clear, when it finally did he stood up straight and turned to face his attacker, blood boiling and eyes narrowed.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He screamed as he turned only to find the man he had been waiting for standing there one eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face. "Where have you been?! I've been waiting for two hours and what's the idea hitting me like that!?" The blond boy screamed.

"For a minute there I thought I hurt you...I guess that would mean something can hurt that thick skull of yours." The older man muttered in an amused tone. "Now let's get started."

"Stupid ero-sennin, that hurt!"

"Stop calling me that!"

They glared at each other for a moment before they both huffed in aggravation. "Fine fine, at least you recovered well." Jiraiya finally conceded.

Naruto huffed again then smirked smugly. "What did you expect I'm the guy who will be Hokage!" The blond reminded him then his expression changed to one of curiosity. "So what technique are you gonna teach me today pervert-sennin?"

Jiraiya bristled slightly at the name but brushed it off and grinned down at the boy before crossing his legs and sitting on the stony ground. "I'm not teaching you any techniques today, actually I'm leaving."

"Huh?"

"I'm going to travel again, there are some things I need to figure out so until I come back you're on your going to be learning from Ebisu again." He explained calmly while watching the boy for his reaction.

Naruto's jaw dropped. "What!? You're gonna leave me to that closet-pervert?!"

"Closet-pervert?" Jiraiya repeated to himself.

"How am I supposed to learn anything from that guy?" Naruto demanded hotly waving his arms around wildly.

Jiraiya smirk softly. "Well for one thing, you could learn how to listen to you instincts."

The blond genin paused and blinked. "What?"

"Learn how to use your instincts in and out of battle. Listening to your instincts will help you find your enemies weakness and help you know where your enemy is going to attack from then avoid it." He said quietly. "I already told Ebisu and he's going to start the training tomorrow so you better show up."

"Fine." Deadpan.

Jiraiya watched the boy for a moment. "One more thing." He said as he stood and made his way over to stand in front of Naruto. "I'm going to do something that will make it easier okay, so bare with me."

He closed his eyes in concentration for a moment then opened them slowly. "Close you eyes and clear your mind." When the boy complied he moved one hand up and rested it against the gennins forehead.

Chakra began to radiate around his hand sending waves of warmth into Naruto which sent a shiver down his spine and making him gasp slightly. "Beast Senses no jutsu." He whispered. There was a pause before he felt the chakra rush from him into his chest then with a sigh he stepped back and stretched.

Naruto stood there for a moment longer eyes still closed before Jiraiya tapped him on the head. "I'll be back in a while, that jutsu should kick in sometime tomorrow." He said then smiled at the frown on the boys face and disappeared in a puff of white smoke.

The boy stood there for a while gazing at the view from the top of the monument before breaking into a grin. "Lucky! Now I'll have no problem beating that Sasuke bastard into the ground." He said excitedly then ran in the direction of Ichiraku Ramen.

There was no way he was going to start this new training with an empty stomach.

Naruto

Gah...I sit up squinting against the morning light then look around, It's my room but how did I get here?

The last thing I remember was...

I smack forehead then climb out of bed. I had ran into Iruka-sensei last night at Ichiraku and he said he'd treat me to ramen since ero-sennin said I was doing good in training. I can't remember how many bowls I ate just that it was more than usual.

Stripping my pajamas off I jumped into the shower turning on the hot water first then the cold and groggily reach for the soap after missing four times I actually grab it...then promptly drop it.

Damn it! I quickly duck down to pick it up, there's that feeling again, tense and nervous at the same time. I don't know why but I always feel that way when I drop the soap. Stupid.

I wash up quickly before I run out of hot water then jump out of the shower cursing myself when I almost end up on my back. I grab a towel and quickly dry off then scoop up my pajamas and head back into the bedroom and pull out my orange training outfit from the closet and start getting dressed almost forgetting my boxers.

Finally dressed I head back into the bathroom and throw the towel in before heading into the kitchen then think twice when I feel my stomach rumble in remembrance of last night. Groaning I head into the living room instead and switch on the TV.

Gotta love shinobi TV.

Flicking through the channels but finding nothing I turn it off with a sigh and stand again, no matter what I do I can't shake this weird feeling.

Without knowing why I suddenly step to the right and barely an instant later closet-pervert appears doing a taijutsu that hits the place where I was just standing. I can't help it, I blink as he stares at me.

"Nah...closet-pervert, what's up?" I ask uneasily.

"Don't call me that!"

I swear I'm going to go deaf if both Ero-sennin and he keep screaming at me like that. "Nah, you know ero-....Jiraiya said the same thing to me yesterday before he left."

"Hn, well I'm sure Jiraiya-san informed you that I was going to resume instructing you in the way of the shinobi while he was gone. So to start off I'd like to see how much you've advanced under his supervision." Damn, why does this guy have to be my teacher?

It took us five minutes to get to the training field as we got there he moved into position and launched a kunai at me, I swear he wants to kill me! I jump out of the way in time but he chases me throwing more kunai and shuriken at me then suddenly he switched from taijutsu to ninjutsu and starts doing all these different moves that I haven't seen before...well except for Kakashi-sensei, but he doesn't really count.

It occurred to me then that most of strongest fighters in Konoha and the teachers were all perverts!

A sudden cold object touches my cheek and I jump back just in time to watch a kunai fly through the air just next to my cheek. Damn it the pervert does want to kill me!

I watch as he charges at me again and I notice something weird, it looks like the closet-pervert is moving in slow motion and without really knowing why I step to the side then advance and strike, a simple punch to the stomach that even dog-boy could have dodged. My eyes widen as I feel the blow connect then watch in shock as the man goes flying almost to the other side of the field.

I don't know what's going on...but I don't think it's bad...

Well there you go, the start in a most probably overly complicated and smut filled plot ridden Naruto fan fiction...anyway I edited this one and I'm going to be going through each of the chapters to fix my mistakes because basically when I write I don't type, no, I spew....sorry that was needlessly disgusting. ' Anyway I'm not going to post pairings at the start because even I don't know how this will turn out, I'm not writing to any specific storyline with the exception of one idea and a whole lot of twisted perversion but trust me there are going to be a lot of different pairings and as I said up top we've got Yaoi and probably Yuri in the future so anyway, on to the next chapter!.....this way yo ï 


	2. Struggle

**KEY**: bold Italic dream

Italic thoughts

Chapter 2 

Sasuke raised his gaze from the scroll he had been reading and looked around, then shivered at a sudden chill that descended on him. He deftly rolled up the scroll and laid it to rest on his table along with the three others that he had read earlier then stood. He let his senses wonder trying to pin point what had caused the feeling.

It was a warm day so there was no natural reason for it, it puzzled him and something nagged at the back of his mind. He brushed the feeling away and did a quick tour of the Uchiha lands but eventually made his way to the front gate when his search turned up empty.

He reached out with one hand and touched the place where the two giant wooden doors met and paused for a moment before reaching down with his other hand and grabbing hold of the door handle and pulled. The door gave way and opened slowly, as soon as the gap between the two doors was large enough he slipped out between them and took a step out into the street.

It was empty, no sign of even a random passer-by, Sasuke shivered again and his eyes narrowed.

Something didn't feel right, he couldn't figure out what it was but something just didn't feel right.

Naruto sat back in his chair and relaxed.

Today's 'training' had gone much better than he had ever thought possible, whatever it was that Jiraiya had done it was working, and well. Not only had he beaten Ebisu the closet-pervert in their mock 'battle' but he had to help him get to the clinic because he couldn't stand on his own.

Part of him felt bad about it but he couldn't help feel slightly elated about his newfound talent, he had never felt so alive as he did now, all his senses were singing. His hearing had improved along with his eyesight, his sense of smell and his hand-eye co-ordination. He was in a whole different league now just because of one jutsu.

He looked over at the other person in the room, Ebisu, who was sleeping peacefully on the hospital bed. The doctor had come in to see him ten minute ago and gave him an examination, saying that he would be fine after a few days of rest.

Naruto's mind reeled, if he could beat closet-pervert with the jutsu used on him just once then image what he could do if it was used two or even three times, there wouldn't be anyone who could beat him. He could beat the Godaime, Tsunade-baa-san and become Hokage.

He ran the idea over in his mind again and again then made up his mind, he would achieve his dream no matter what. He ran the memory of what Jiraiya had done through his mind several times before he decided he had it down then closed his eyes in concentration. He focused the thought and his chakra into his hand then opened his eyes, sure enough his left hand was surrounded in his chakra. He released the breath he didn't know he was holding and began to move his hand toward his chest.

In a flash the door was pushed open and a nurse quickly moved inside and towards Ebisu's bed to give him a check up. Without thinking Naruto instinctively tried to hide his glowing hand but as he tried to swing it down and around him, his hand brushed against his stomach.

Instantly he felt his chakra rush into the area.

He gasped and doubled over clutching his stomach, he hadn't meant to do that. The nurse looked up at him and frowned then moved around to his side of the bed and leaned in close.

"You're sweating...are you hurt somewhere, did the doctor look you over too?" She asked quietly as she looked him over.

Naruto blinked, he had started to sweat and he didn't even realize it. He shook his head quickly. "No...I'm fine, it's just..." He looked around frantically for an excuse that would explain what he was doing.

"You ate too much before training again, didn't you boy?" She guessed glancing down pointedly at his arms that were wrapped around his stomach.

The blond blinked again then realized what she had said and quickly nodded. "Yeah..."

She stood up straight then moved back to her place next to Ebisu and shook her head. "Go home and get some rest, you should know to do that by now." She said briskly then turned her attention away from him completely and went back to work.

Without waiting to hear if she had anything else to say he fled the clinic and raced from rooftop to rooftop until he reached his apartment, quickly sliding in and locking the door behind him.

This was just too weird.

Kakashi nodded his head as he listened to Tsunade speak.

It was the next day and the doctor from the clinic had gotten in touch with Tsunade to let her know what had happened yesterday and to tell her that Ebisu wouldn't be able to work for the next for days, until he recovered and now Tsunade was relaying the incident to Kakashi because he was Naruto's old teacher.

"Apparently Naruto left the clinic a little after that, I checked around and no one has seen him since then. A nurse said that he had a sore stomach from eating before his training with Ebisu, so I assume he went home." She said absently. "Please go check on him, we're supposed to be watching over him while Jiraiya is gone and the last thing I need is that pervert to whine at me because his student died of food poisoning or something like that."

Kakashi smiled beneath his mask, Tsunade appeared to treat Naruto like all the other people in Konoha but Kakashi could tell that she had a soft spot for the boy. It was hard not to get attached to the boy after spending time with him and fighting along side him, he had one of the most infections personalities Kakashi had ever come across.

"I'll go find him." He promised then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Seconds later he was standing before the door to Naruto's apartment. It wasn't far from the Hokage's home which was probably all planned out when the blond was just a baby. It was easier to keep a watch over the nine tails this way. With a sigh he knocked on the door, after a minute he knocked again. Still no answer.

He could feel Naruto's chakra inside so he knew he was home and it was close to the door but the door was still shut. "Oi Naruto? It's Kakashi, Naruto?" He called through the door.

After five minute of knocking and shouting he'd had enough, he reached into one of his uniforms pockets and retrieved his lock picks and went to work on the door. In less than a minute he had the door unlocked and he swung it open, it swung open and he quickly stepped inside then closed it behind him and looked around.

Immediately he could feel that something wasn't right, he had felt Naruto's chakra close to the door but he was nowhere in sight. He gazed around the room again then his eyes caught sight of something bright underneath the table. He moved towards it and squatted down next to the table and looked underneath, what he had seen was one long soft blond spike.

He frowned at his discovery, why was Naruto huddled up under the table. He reached out with one hand but stopped before he touched the boy. Naruto was shivering violently and on closer inspection Kakashi could feel the boys chakra fluctuating fiercely, the older man drew his hand back away from the shivering form but continued to watch, it wasn't long before he could actually see Naruto's chakra move in wispy tendrils around his body.

Kakashi shivered against his will, the air around them had drastically dropped in temperature to the point where he could see his breath. One long wisp of chakra brushed against the underside of the table and as soon as it touched ice raced across the wooden surface, freezing it and giving it a cloudy white sheen that reflected what little light there was in the room.

Without bothering to think Kakashi jumped away from the boy and the table and quickly moved towards a wall where a telephone was located and picked it up. Telephones of Konoha only had four buttons respectively, one to contact the clinic, one for the fire department and one for the law enforcers.

The last one was strictly only for emergency use, such as a enemy attack because it was a direct line to the Hokage's office. Without missing a beat he raised the receiver to his ear and pressed the button. There was a short pause before someone picked up the receiver on the other side.

"Yes?"

"Godaime-sama, it's Kakashi."

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"Something's wrong with Naruto."

"Eh?! What's wrong?"

"I don't know, please come quickly." He said quickly then hung up the receiver and moved over so he could have a better view of Naruto.

By now the floor within a meters radius of the blond was frozen and the couch was also likewise frozen. Kakashi shivered again as he watched the tendrils of chakra reach out into the air and snaked along the ground freezing everything they came into contact with. Suddenly there were several puffs of smoke as Tsunade appeared along with her Anbu escort, as soon as they took in the situation they moved forward to act as a barrier between Naruto's Chakra and Tsunade.

"Stop that, I can't do anything if you get in the way." She snapped angrily and turned to move around them.

One of the Anbu, a man with a mask that resemble a cat turned to face her but as he did the tendrils suddenly expanded reaching up past the couch and to the ceiling, the roof was frozen instantly along with the cat masked Anbu, turning him into a sick likeness of an ice sculpture.

"Shit." One of the other Anbu swore and pushed Tsunade back another step. "Godaime-sama, if you can do something, please do it now before all of Konoha gets frozen."

"Don't tell me things I already know." She snapped again then moved over next to Kakashi who was standing a safe distance away, frowning at the scene. "When did this start?"

He shook his head. "I'm not sure, he only started freezing things after I got here."

"Not long then." She muttered.

A frog masked Anbu stepped sideways, toward her. "Godaime-sama, is it possible that this is..." He didn't finish the sentence, he didn't need to.

Kakashi shook his head. "If it was the Kyuubi things would be melting not freezing, the Kyuubi is a fire demon. This goes completely against both Naruto and Kyuubi, this isn't right."

"Hn." Tsunade turned and watched the tendrils through narrowed eyes then traced them back to the source then gasped when she caught sight of Naruto who was still huddled and shivering under the frozen table.

His skin had a distinct blue tinge to it and his lips were a deep azure, his eyes were wide open and staring straight ahead. She noticed something chilling as she looked into those eyes, they were no longer a warm blue, now they were fading from ice blue to complete white then back again.

"Naruto." She whispered in anguish then she straightened in defiance and turned her gaze to the Anbu next to her. "Go find Iruka, stay with him and make sure he stays away from here."

He nodded curtly and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

She sighed and shifted her eyes back to Naruto. "If this keeps up for too long he'll probably die, so if any of you have any ideas start talking."

Kakashi shifted from one foot to the other in an uncharacteristic display of nerves. "I think I know something that will work."

"What?"

He swung his eyes away from the shivering blond to stare directly into Tsunade's eyes. "It's a jutsu I learned while I was still an Anbu, it's dangerous though, very dangerous."

She kept eye contact and stood up to her full height. "Tell me."

"The jutsu is something like a seal, it's fire based so it should help to suppress some of the cold..."

"But."

"It works around other seals, so in Naruto's case we'd be drawing away some of the strength of his seal to help keep it in place..." He paused for a moment and shifted his gaze back to Naruto. "If you decide to do it we're going to need one person for each point of his seal and it's going to eat up a lot of chakra to establish the seal itself."

She frowned. "How much?"

Kakashi closed his and took a deep breath. "Enough to put an Anbu in hospital and under constant surveillance for a week, maybe longer."

Tsunade let her breath out in a hiss and clamped her teeth shut.

A puff of smoke interrupted them and they all turned to look at the new comer.

It was another Anbu, a female with a mask that resembled a bird. "Godaime-sama, someone has spotted Itachi."

"Here?" She demanded harshly, taking a step toward the other woman.

She nodded quickly. "We already have two Anbu teams following him, we need you're go ahead to confront him."

Tsunade took a deep, steady breath then gazed back at Naruto. "No, escort him here, bring him to me and tell him the boy he's looking for is with me."

The bird masked woman stayed where she was for a moment then bowed stiffly and disappeared again.

"You're going to get him to help." Kakashi guessed, speaking softly.

"If this is going to work we're going to need all the chakra we can get our hands on, and if he wants Naruto as much as I think he does then he's going to keep him alive. I'm willing to bet that there's almost nothing he wouldn't do to get his hands on the power that's locked inside him." Tsunade said softly. "Hopefully this will drain him as much as it does us and he'll be weakened and if it works the boy will be to fragile to be moved anywhere for a while, so he won't be able to pull anything."

Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly but Tsunade could tell he was worried just as much as she was. It was silly to think it but Naruto was like the sun and their hearts were plants, without the warm glow of the sun plants eventually wither and die. Perhaps she was pushing things and over-reacting but she could almost feel her heart beginning to wither.

"We're going to have to call in a few more Anbu if we're really going to go through with this. Naruto's seal consists of two four elephant seals so we'll need eight people pouring chakra into this jutsu." Kakashi said slowly looking back at the masked Anbu.

Tsunade nodded in agreement. "One of you go find some others, quickly and then stay with the Uchiha boy, I don't want him accidentally wandering into this. And someone should evacuate the people in the surrounding area, in case something goes wrong."

There was a quiet noise from behind her as one of the Anbu departed. "What about that mans 'escort'?"

"I want them to be at full strength in case he tries anything."

"Itachi, I'd welcome you but I just can't find it in myself to do so." Tsunade growled out as the man appeared along with his partner.

He shrugged the barest of acknowledgements and quickly surveyed the room then grunted sourly at the lack of heat in the room and the frozen furniture. The chakra tendrils had increased in size and now stood out at three meters all around Naruto's body and continued to lick at the air. They were seriously starting to lose ground in the cramped apartment.

"What happened?" He asked quietly as he stared directly at Naruto's huddled blue form.

"We don't know, but we do have a way to stop it...we need your help." Tsunade ground the last bit out loathingly.

"Why should I help you?"

Kakashi turned his gaze away from Naruto and looked at the oldest living Uchiha. "If this continues for much longer Naruto will die, so will Kyuubi and from what I heard Naruto managed to put Ebisu into hospital in a sparring match and didn't receive a scratch in return. He's grown too strong just to let him die, he's worth too much."

A heavy silence filled the room. "That man is still alive?" Itachi asked breaking the silence.

"If you help us save him I'll grant you free passage in Konoha, you'll have the rights of a normal citizen and you can see whomever you want, provided you do not commit a crime." Tsunade said quietly, staring right into Naruto's white eyes. "If he survives and gets strong again."

Itachi considered the offer then smirked, although it was hidden by the high collar of his cloak. "Very well, what do we need to do to get him back."

"Turn yourself into a battery." Kakashi said simply. "We need eight people with enough power to make the seal after it's in place the Kyuubi's seal will keep it in place. The only thing that will break it after that is if he either dies or the Kyuubi's seal is broken, then we're back where we started." He added looking pointedly at Naruto.

"You want to try the Fire Kami Seal?" Itachi's partner barked out with something akin to disbelief. "You know we don't use that for a reason."

"You know it?"

Kisame shook his head. "I've heard about it, you know you're better off letting the kid die. You really think you've got that much power left here after everything that's happened?"

"That's why you're going to help, you want the boy, you keep him alive." Tsunade told him, her voice sweet venom. She looked around then exhaled deeply. "Let's do it. Kakashi?"

Kakashi nodded and quickly took charge showing more life than he had since the Hokage had appeared. He swiftly directed the seven others who were going to lend their chakra to the seal where to move to then took his own place. "I suggest you kneel for this." He said plainly and sank down to the floor. "Now do what I do."

They had formed two half circles, one on each side of Naruto four on one side and four on the other. Kakashi pulled a kunai from his pouch and deftly sliced on of his palms open followed by the other then stabbed the bloody kunai into the floor and began to gather chakra into his bleeding hands. The others followed his example without question.

"Send as much chakra as you can and focus your mind on fire, nothing else, just fire. Then when you've done that and have solid unwavering image touch your hands palm down to the floor on wither side of your kunai."

They nodded slowly and before long the light and heat their chakra was producing was lighting up the room as if the sun itself was residing inside the room. One by one starting with the Anbu they touched their hands to the floor. Their blood defied physical law and did not well up around their hands as it should have instead the blood from each hand made a trail toward their kunai's and pooled around them for a moment before continuing as one line of blood towards Naruto's shivering form, their chakra following the trail like blue fire and trail by trail is touched him.

As soon as all eight blood and chakra trails touched him the wisps of chakra began to thrash around erratically then seemingly flew down as if it was trying to attack their blood, however their blood didn't freeze.

After a minute their blood began to soak Naruto's orange clothes and it started to move up and cover his skin leading their chakra to cover his body.

Naruto screamed.

Tsunade flinched at the shrill scream of pain then strengthened her resolve and clenched her teeth shut.

Naruto continued to scream and scream in pain until his screams no longer sounded human, he continued until his screams no longer even sounded like those of an animal. It was heartbreaking and terrifying to hear the energetic and kind hearted personified ray of sunshine scream in such agony, then to scream with a feeling that went far beyond pain, far beyond suffering or any other feeling that mankind had words to describe.

Their blood and chakra touched then mixed and their chakra fire burst into something akin to a roaring bonfire, except the room was completely silent apart from Naruto's screams. The chakra fire blazed and soon it became so intense that it blocked their view of the boy and they had to avert lest they be blinded by the bright light the chakra created.

Suddenly Naruto's screams stopped completely and the room went from freezing cold to and inferno then the fire was gone leaving a deafening silence to hover in the room.

Tsunade released a shuddered breath that she hadn't been aware of that she was holding and looked around.

The four Anbu who had helped were all sprawled on the floor, one of them wasn't moving at all and Tsunade knew he had given up too much of his chakra to sustain his body, he had given up his life for an attempt to save Naruto's.

Tears stung her eyes and she said a quick prayer for him and swore that she would tell Naruto about the sacrifice that someone else had made for him, how he had been acknowledged by someone she was sure he had never met.

Her eyes swung around next to her and saw Kakashi sweating and waving precariously from side to side, panting heavily, as if he had just run a thirty mile race at full speed without stopping or slowing down. She reached out with one numb and bloody hand and touched his shoulder, he merely nodded telling her that he would be fine after he rested.

Her eyes moved further to where Itachi and Kisame kneeled hands still on the floor a light sheen of sweat covering their faces and hands, and like Kakashi they were breathing heavily. Even enemies did their all to keep him alive.

Finally her eyes turned to Naruto, taking in the blood soaked for. His shivering had turned into occasional shudders and his eyes were closed so she couldn't tell what colour they were. He was completely silent but he appeared to be breathing although it was slightly erratic and also his chakra was nowhere in sight.

Tsunade turned back to Kakashi, trying to push the memory of Naruto's agonizing screams from her mind. "And now?"

"Pray that he can survive the next few days."


	3. Break down

**KEY**: bold Italic dream

Italic thoughts

Chapter 3 

"The man known as Uchiha Itachi and his companion Hoshigaki Kisame have a pass of goodwill. You will not approach them or try to attack them, if you do you will be killed." Tsunade didn't bother saying whether it would be them or her that killed them but the steal in her voice left little doubt that they would die. "They have performed a great service for the leaf and will be treated with respect, if you can't respect a good deed then respect their strength. This is my order and anyone who breaks it and starts trouble will be punished."

With that last sentence she turned on her heel stiffly and walked into her office and out of sight. As soon as she was out of sight she visibly wilted and one of her Anbu attendants stepped forward to offer her support. She merely smiled and shook her head then waved her away.

It was two days now since they had performed the seal and had hospitalized Naruto, the blond was never alone. At all times he had at least one doctor and two nurses present along with a sizeable Anbu guard. He was never left alone, ever. He was now more heavily guarded and cared for than even her, the Hokage of Konoha.

She looked over to the door then nodded. "I'm going to visit them."

Them, Naruto, the Anbu, Kakashi and Itachi and Kisame. All of them were being held in a strictly no access wing, no one was allowed that Tsunade hadn't specifically pointed out. In all rights she should still be in there with them but she knew she needed to make an appearance and give the order that Itachi and Kisame were to be left alone. She sighed, recalling that she would need to have a discussion with the younger Uchiha brother soon before there was trouble.

"Just please don't go home, not just yet. I want to talk to your brother first so that he understands."

Itachi looked up at her from where he lay in bed then looked up to the ceiling and closed his eyes. "That would be best." He whispered almost inaudibly.

Tsunade smiled wryly, glad that he had decided to agree and play nice. "I gave the order before so no one should bother you, but if someone does act rashly try not to do more than defend yourself." Her way of politely saying 'don't destroy my village'.

"Hn."

"The doctor told me that you will have regained enough energy to leave the hospital after a couple more days then if you want I can give you an apartment..."

"No."

Tsunade cocked her head to one side. "Pardon?"

"If I stay anywhere in Konoha it will be at the Uchiha compound." He told her firmly without opening his eyes.

"In that case I should talk to your brother soon."

"Hn."

Tsunade stood and winced slightly as her muscles screamed in protest. "I'll work out something." She said quietly before she left.

She sighed and made the short trip down the hall to Kakashi's room and knocked politely before entering. Kakashi was sitting up in bed, bare-chested, a doctor standing over him speaking softly. The jounin nodded curtly then lay back in his bed stiffly then released a tired sigh and turned his gaze toward her, ignoring the doctor as he left the room.

"Godaime...Yo." He finished with a tired grin.

She rolled her eyes at him then smiled and sat on the chair next to his bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired." He answered honestly. "The doctor says I can leave after a few more days." He added after a slight pause.

Tsunade nodded. "It's the same for Itachi and his friend, the other three will be in here for a bit longer I made the announcement all I have to do now is..."

Whatever she was going to say was rudely cut off as the door burst open and a nurse burst through. "Godaime-sama, he's awake." She said in a rush.

"Naruto..."

"Go."

She didn't need to hear anymore, throwing away decades of techniques and abilities she had learned she jumped out of her seat and bounded out the door. She raced through the hall until she came to the end, the door was standing open, waiting for her. She passed through it and made her way passed the Anbu to the bedside and looked down.

Naruto had changed somewhat, the seal was, not surprisingly blood red in colour and stretched the entire length of his body and no matter how many times Tsunade had been to visit him in the two days he had been here and after all the hours she spent at his bedside it never ceased to surprise her to see the angry red marks marring Naruto's skin, nor did it stop her from shuddering and remembering screams of pain she wanted to desperately forget.

She was a shinobi, she was Hokage of Konoha and she was one of the three legendary sennin but before all that she was a human and regardless of how many years she had fought and watched battles she had never heard the kind of screamed that passed through Naruto's lips, there was nothing to prepare her for it and she sincerely prayed that no one else had to experience anything like it.

Naruto looked up at her from under thick eyelashes and Tsunade could see the deep blue behind them. "Tsunade-baa-san?" He pushed out, his voice raspy and tired.

"Yes, it's me, how do you feel Naruto?" She asked gently.

"N-not good...nah, Obaa-san can I go home...I don't want to stay here, I don't like hospitals." He pleaded quietly, his half lidded eyes staring up into hers.

She was silent a moment then she had an idea. "Just stay here for a couple more days then I'll move you out of here okay? Humor this Obaa-san." She added with a smile.

He smiled weakly in return and nodded slightly before his eyes slid closed and he began to snore softly.

She stayed with him for another two hours, just watching him sleep before she stood and paid a quick visit to Kakashi to tell him the news before heading back into the room Itachi shared with Kisame.

"I thought of a way."

Sasuke paced back and forth, seething and gripping his arms tight enough to bruise.

A day had passed since the Hokage had given the order to Konoha about his brother but no matter where he went he couldn't find the man. It was really starting to bother him and what made it worse was that Sakura had shown up earlier and had started asking questions he didn't want to answer about things he didn't want to remember.

He stopped pacing suddenly and simply stared at the floor.

Something was going to happen, something had happened and both were going to change his life in ways he wasn't sure he wanted or was ready for.

Ino and Sakura sat under a tree idly playing with the long grass and conversing.

"I don't get it Ino...Sasuke-kun won't say anything at all." Sakura said quietly.

Ino nodded and yanked up a blade of grass. "I suppose he has a reason though, since his brother suddenly appeared."

"Yeah but that's the thing, I don't think he's even seen him yet."

The blond waved the comment away. "He's probably busy sorting things out with the Godaime."

"I guess. Do...do you think they'll be able to get along?" Sakura asked haltingly.

Ino laughed. "How the hell would I know, at least they're not allowed to fight."

"You think Sasuke-kun would listen?"

"Probably not."

The day after Naruto had first awoken from his deep sleep, he wanted out, and he wanted it in a bad way.

He had gotten his strength back at an incredibly speed. When he had awoken yesterday he was weary and could hardly move, now after a day and a night of sleep he was wide awake and alert. He wanted to get up and move, to stretch his aching muscles and the Anbu whom had been ordered by Tsunade to make sure Naruto didn't leave the room had allowed him to get out of the bed and do stretches but would not let him leave the room, instead they took turns telling him stories to keep him entertained.

Naruto had decided that he didn't like not being able to call them a name when he talked to them so he called each of them by the mask they wore.

In return for their stories he told a few of his own, leaving out a few details like Kyuubi, and told a few jokes. He recounted to them the times he had used Sexy no Jutsu and they continued to warm up, laughing at his adventures and their own images of the great ninjas and teachers of Konoha being felled by the technique. It had taken him less than three hours to befriend ever Anbu in and around his room and it wasn't much longer that he had memorized the pitch of each of their voices and catalogued them next to the names he had given them.

The blond was actually quite pleased of himself, he had made many friends all who had decided they were going to celebrate his release from hospital with a big banquet.

The idea warmed his heart and he smiled brightly up at them when they had agreed to it.

Someone knocked on the door then it opened to reveal Tsunade. "I see you're having fun." She noted happily as she entered the room and closed the door.

"Yeah, I was just telling them how I beat the old man with Sexy no Jutsu." He informed her with a grin. "Cat, Frog and Wolf want me to teach it to them."

Tsunade gazed around the room with a small smile. "I see, well it's good to see you're making friends."

She had started making arrangements earlier that day after she had first visited him and seen how well he had recovered, it hadn't taken much just a few quick words with the doctors and Itachi and everything was set.

"So, how wouldn't you like to get out of here?" She asked off handily.

"I can go?" Naruto asked, half screaming.

Tsunade made her way over to the side of the bed. "I've arranged for somewhere for you to stay, it's not far from here and the place is big enough for you to recover fully and get in some training when you're ready." She said, her heart singing as she watched a huge smile spread across his face.

"Can they come too?" He asked motioning to the Anbu around the room.

"Of course." She consented. "I wouldn't want to separate you from your new friends so soon." She said but the look she gave each of the Anbu told them there was another reason for them being with him. "There are going to be a few others going with you including Kakashi."

Naruto's head snapped up. "Eh? Kakashi-sensei's here too?"

Somehow Tsunade wasn't surprised that he didn't remember what had happened, in fact she was grateful he didn't. "Yes, I have to make some last arrangements with the doctors so you can leave in a minute or so."

Five minutes later four heavily cloaked people were pushed out of the hospital in wheelchairs by a doctor and three nurses, the Anbu guard was following along close behind from the shadows, looking everywhere for any sign of danger to the special convoy. They arrived at their destination unscathed.

The gateway to the Uchiha compound looming over them.

It had taken Tsunade a lot of fast talking to stop Sasuke from attacking Itachi.

Actually it had taken a lot of angry words about Naruto's safety and about healing and a few hits to make sure what she was saying got through to him. "If anything bad happens to Naruto while he's staying here I will personally use every ounce of power at my disposal to make sure you live long enough to regret every sin you've ever committed." She had finished glaring down at the boy.

After a few tense minutes he finally nodded and she turned back to where Naruto's wheelchair waited directly behind her then stopped. Naruto had fallen asleep and had curled himself up turning his cloak into a blanket. When Sasuke caught sight of him his breath hissed.

"What happened to him?" He asked quietly.

"We're not sure but it took a huge of chakra from four Anbu, Kakashi, your brother and his friend Kisame and myself to keep him alive. He's recovering remarkably well considering he almost died a few days ago but I want you to keep a close eye over him in case anything happens. An Anbu guard is going to be stationed around the compound so don't be alarmed and this doctor and the nurses will be helping to see they recover." Tsunade informed him quietly as she reached down to pull the huge cloak up around Naruto's shoulders.

"What ever it is that almost killed him is sealed so it shouldn't happen again. If something goes wrong the Anbu have been instructed to fetch me so all you need to worry about is helping your four patients get well." She added after a slight pause then turned back to face him.

"I have work to do so I have to leave you now but I'll stop by when I can to see how much progress you make." And with that she was gone.

Sasuke pried his gaze from Naruto to look at his brother who was slightly slumped over in his wheelchair, like Naruto he too had fallen asleep. It felt strange to him, seeing his brother sleeping so peacefully after everything that had happened between them. His eyes left his brothers sleeping face and found Kakashi's eyes which were wide open and regarding him quietly.

"Uchiha-kun, please lead the way so we can get our patients into bed." The doctor requested politely, breaking the silence.

"Hn...this way." He said and turned to lead them towards into the house and towards rooms not far from his own.

Itachi went into his old room and Kisame was put into one opposite it and Kakashi was wheeled into one to the left of his while Naruto was housed opposite Sasuke's own room. A moment later Anbu began to make themselves known to the teen and were quickly assigned rooms of their own in the same wing. About an hour later Sasuke opened the front door to admit two cooks whom had been hired by Tsunade to take care of all the meals and Sasuke gave them rooms in the guest quarters near the kitchen and watched as they raided his pantry and refrigerator to see what was there then excused themselves to visit the market.

Sasuke sighed then went back to visit Kakashi and plainly asked what had happened to put everyone in such a state. A half an hour later he left the room eyes wide and shaking slightly and moved to kneel by the futon Naruto was sleeping in.

"How are you alive?" He whispered to the blonds sleeping form.


	4. Moving and Changes

**KEY**: bold Italic dream

Italic thoughts

Chapter 4 

The next few days passed in relative quiet, Sasuke avoided his brother and his friend and instead he stuck around Naruto and Kakashi. Sakura and a few others appeared at the door but were turned away quickly.

They were out on the lawns now doing stretches to relieve aching muscles from staying in one spot too long as Sasuke watched in mild interest. Naruto appeared to be back to normal and if he wasn't covered in the blood red seal and if Kakashi hadn't told him what have happened he never would have thought anything was wrong with the blond.

The doctor, Dr. Nomura, had allowed a light exercise and Naruto had first laughed then whined at him and Sasuke could tell by the expression on Naruto's face that he was going to do as much as he could and ignore the doctors warnings. An hour after starting his 'light exercise' it became apparent that Kakashi was doing the same.

When one of the nurses had tried to slow them down Kakashi had stared her down and simply said. "Risk nothing and you get nothing in return."

The next day things were speeding up a little more and Sasuke was allowed to train and spar with them. Slowly the other occupants of the house made their way to the wide grassy area and took seats to watch the sparring match that had begun between Naruto and Sasuke. Even Itachi and Kisame were taking their ease on the soft lawn.

Naruto and Sasuke bound backwards and forwards, Naruto successfully dodging each of Sasuke's attacks and dealing out a few of his own and when Sasuke moved to counter one of the blonds attacks Naruto deftly ducked out of the way then spun around behind him.

After they were done Itachi approached them and gazed down at his brother. "Next time, brother, if you try to counter a move like that use more of your stomach and leave your legs and arms relaxed so you can change course if you need to." He said quietly then disappeared into the house.

Naruto grinned then bounced over to where the no few Anbu sat together and jumped in between them and started talking animatedly. He stood out like a sore thumb, this blond haired boy surrounded by adults all with dark hair.

Sometimes Sasuke could almost envy the other boys ability to warm up to others and trust them.

"You're not wearing your masks...nah...I can't call you those names anymore." Naruto whined slightly.

A long haired man smiled at him and shook his head. "We're not officially on duty so we don't need the masks, so you can call us by our real names."

Naruto huffed. "Yeah but I don't know your names remember?"

"Easy." The man said then each of the Anbu took turns introducing themselves.

"Ah." The blond said simply then grinned. "So you're Cat." He said pointing to the long haired man.

The group blinked then stared at the boy. "How do you know that?" He asked curiously.

"I was listening to your voices when you all told me stories so I remember what you're voices sound like." He informed them with a bright smile.

They laughed in amusement and one or two patted his back or shoulders. "Very smart Naruto, you might make a good Anbu one day." Frog, or Seiji stated with a grin.

Naruto sat up straight and his eyes widened with excitement. "Really? You really think so?"

"We'll see."

"Nah...Kakashi-sensei I'm hungry."

Kakashi looked down at the blond boy and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you telling me?"

"Well..."

Suddenly an idea dawn on Kakashi as he watched his former student hop from one foot to the other. "You can't remember the way, can you?"

Naruto glared at him. "It's not my fault this place is so damn big." He said defensively.

"I didn't say it was." The older man said quietly. "Come on, it's almost time for lunch anyway."

They made their way through various hallways that all appeared the same to Naruto until finally reaching a large hall. It had been a week now since they had first arrived at the Uchiha compound and regardless of the fact that Kakashi had been given the okay to leave he had remained and kept a close eye on Naruto. Tsunade had visited every second day or so and spent time showing Naruto a few moves and sharing a story or two from her days as a chuunin, she also took the time to speak to the Anbu and Itachi and Kisame. She had also brought Naruto's wardrobe with her on her first visit so he wouldn't have to wear the same clothes every day.

Despite how the intensity of Naruto's training had increased over the week things remained quiet and tame. All conflicts were caused by different opinions and were solved with several hours of conversation. No confrontation had come to blows with the exception of Sasuke slapping Naruto upside the head for a particularly stupid comment that had actually made everyone think seriously about it and debate whether it was anatomically possible or not.

Everyone else was already there and seated in the dining hall and the cooks were bringing out several plates and bowls of assorted foods but as soon as they caught sight of Naruto one of them disappeared into the kitchen then reappeared carrying a large bowl then sat it down at Naruto's place at the huge table.

"Ramen!" Naruto shouted joyfully and grabbed his chopsticks.

There were a few laughs at his behavior but soon everything settled down and they ate in silence.

"Nah, Kakashi-sensei?"

"What?"

"When do you think Tsunade-baa-san will let me go home?"

All movement ceased at the table and everyone sat there staring at their plates or bowls so they wouldn't have to meet his deep blue eyes.

"It's not that I don't like being here, it's fun and I get to train a lot with my new friends but...I kinda miss going to Ichiraku and I miss seeing my other friends like Sakura-chan and Fuzzy eyebrows, even Dog-boy. I miss going on missions and rolling down those grassy hills outside Konoha on warms days..." He trailed into silence then sighed. "Actually...I don't think I'm really hungry just now."

He stood and left the room his head bowed and his arms wrapped around himself. The silence remained for a moment longer before Kakashi sighed. "Sometimes it's easy to forget just how much those things mean to him. They may be simple but because Naruto grew up alone the simple things were all he had, of course he misses them."

Mouse, or Kirako sighed. "I'll go speak to Godaime-sama, she should know how he feels." She said and stood from the table then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

One by one they finished eating and left so they could be alone with their thoughts until only Itachi, Kakashi and Kisame were left.

"It's strange," Itachi began. "I already have one younger brother who hates me but now it feels like I'm getting another brother. The feeling gets stronger the more time I spend around him yet when I'm away from him I feel guilty for not being there."

Kakashi nodded. "Naruto's like that, he's such a loud energetic and stubborn kid but his smiles are infectious and he will trust almost anyone until they prove they don't deserve it. It's hard to say no when he really wants something, he has a habit of growing on you until you can't help but care what happens to him." He said sagely. "It's impossible not to think of him as a brother, even the Godaime will agreed."

Itachi watched him for a moment then smiled softly, the first time in a very long time. "Maybe he can teach me a few things."

"He could teach all of us a few things...that brat." Kisame muttered.

A gently tap on his door brought Itachi's head up. "Enter."

The door slid open silently to admit someone then closed just as silently.

Itachi sat there on the floor and waited, eventually Naruto made his way further into the room and knelt down slightly away from the older man. "Nah..."

"Itachi...call me Itachi." The dark haired man instructed him quietly as Naruto groped for something to call him without being disrespectful.

Naruto nodded. "Nah, Itachi...do you know, what happened I mean. Why were we in the hospital?"

"You don't remember?"

The blond merely shook his head then stared into the others eyes. "I asked Kakashi and Seiji and Kirako and the others but no one will tell me anything."

_You didn't get an answer from your friends so you came to me? Interesting_ Itachi though absently.

"Please, I want to know but no one else will say anything except 'get better' or 'do your best' but I'm fine I'm stronger than before so please tell me, please."

For five minutes the sat like that before Itachi gave into the pained, pleading expression Naruto was giving him. "Something happened, no one knows what but you collapsed and you were shivering and your skin was blue from the cold, your chakra was out around your body and it froze solid anything it touched. One of the Anbu was frozen by it, Kakashi suggested a seal, the Fire Kami Seal and he needed seven others, one for each point of your other seal. We had to pour out nearly all our chakra to power the seal, one of the Anbu died because he used all of his chakra to try to keep you alive. The seal used our blood and chakra to seal whatever it was inside you and to raise your body temperature to stop you freezing to death, when it was done you had those marks all over your body."

They sat in silence after then and Naruto bowed his head, hiding his face behind his fringe. "Who were they?"

"Who did it?" At Naruto's nod he continued. "Myself, Kisame, Kakashi, the Hokage and four other Anbu I don't know."

Without warning Naruto had wrapped his arms around Itachi's neck and embraced him. "I'm sorry." He whispered into the crook of the older mans neck.

Itachi sat there for a moment too startled to react, he hadn't even seen Naruto move then suddenly he was being hugged. He felt something wet hit his neck and realized Naruto must be crying. Hesitatingly he reached up and slowly returned the embrace, it was the first one he had shared with anyone for years. He gently held the sobbing boy until his tears subsided and for a guilty moment his thoughts turned to the heavy cloak he hadn't worn since he had been hospitalized, it was his mission to bring Naruto so they would have the power of Kyuubi with them but now...he'd let himself get attached, he allowed himself to remember what it felt like to let himself grow close to someone, to have a brother that didn't hate him.

He decided then and there that he would have to talk to his real brother before too long.

Naruto sniffed and released him then sat back his gaze turned aside and his face aflame with embarrassment. "Sorry...Thanks."

"Hn...was there anything else you wanted to ask?" Itachi asked quietly.

Naruto shook his head and stood then made his way to the door, wiping at his face with his sleeve.

For a long while after he left Itachi remained seated in the same spot thinking about what had just happened and about how his return to Konoha had changed him. This trip had taken a very unexpected turn.

"Please Tsunade-baa-san." Naruto begged for the up tenth time.

Finally Tsunade sighed and regarded Naruto seriously. "Naruto, please understand I'm still worried about you and the seal. On top of that you seem to keep forgetting that you don't look the same as before."

"I don't care, they're not my friends because of how I look and I'm fine, I can keep up with Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei." Naruto pointed out with a huff.

She stared at him for a moment then nodded. "Fine, I'll allow you to invite a few people for dinner." She conceded then tossed a piece of paper and a pencils. "Right down their names and I'll contact them."

Naruto grinned at the win and quickly scribbled down something then folded the piece of paper and handed it back to her along with the pencil then bounded out of the office.

Tsunade sighed then unfolded the piece of paper and read through the list.


	5. Just Yes

**KEY**: bold Italic dream

Italic thoughts

Chapter 5 

For the first time in a long while Uchiha compound was in an uproar, food littered tables. Sasuke had disappeared sometime earlier along with Itachi and Kisame and had yet to appear.

Their guests showed up together, all the 'rookie' teams and their teachers along with a few others. They slowly flocked into the large hall looking around and taking in their surroundings.

Sakura and Ino walked side by side taking in everything and exchanging ecstatic, hushed whispers about the compound. Shikamaru's normal bored expression was in place but that didn't stop him from taking in every little detail. Gaara, Temari and Kankuro stood slightly off to one side talking silently while Chouji, Lee, Neji and Tenten moved in on the food and drinks. Kiba and Shino were talking to one of the Anbu while Hinata hid behind them, her eyes scanning the room for someone.

Everyone was there, everyone who had graduated with Naruto, everyone who had fought with him or against him, everyone who knew him as more than a monster.

Iruka, Tsunade and the teachers surveyed the scene then moved over to where Kakashi and most of the other grown ups were standing already deep in conversation.

Strangely enough though Naruto was nowhere to be found. Ten minutes passed by but still no sigh of the blond.

"I wonder what's taking him so long." Iruka muttered looking around for the boy.

"I haven't seen him since we started setting everything up." Kakashi mused quietly.

Tsunade frowned. "You don't suppose he's sick?"

Seiji grinned broadly. "With how much he ate for breakfast then lunch...plus he's been literally running around in circles since he came back from your office Godaime-sama, it wouldn't surprise me."

"He's probably just lost." One of the other Anbu commented absently.

Kakashi straightened then stretched. "I'll go look for him, he probably doesn't know everyone's here." He said simply then left the room.

Strange...Naruto was excited about the party but he doesn't show up 

Kakashi checked Naruto's room first but found it empty, there was no sign of Naruto but Kakashi noted something that was un-Naruto-like, his belonging had been thrown all across the room, the place was a complete mess. Frowning slightly he closed the door and began to do a thorough sweep of the compound and no matter how many times that he tried to convince himself that nothing was wrong and that Naruto was going to jump out from around a corner, he couldn't shake the distinct feeling that something wasn't right. In the end his search came up empty.

He quickly headed back to the others and quickly headed to Tsunade's side. "He's not in the compound."

She blinked then frowned. "You're sure?" At his nod her frown deepened to a scowl. "Where could he have gone?"

Kakashi moved the search outwards away from the compound, as far as he could while still being around the limits of Konoha but by then he knew. He knew that Naruto was gone, probably somewhere far away from Konoha, from his home and that he wouldn't see the teen for a long time.

Perhaps he was over reacting but he knew that they wouldn't find Naruto on their side of the countries boarder. An hour later they all regroup back at the compound. It was then that something hit him. "Where's Sasuke, we haven't seen him since before the party."

Everyone exchanged glances and were about to start up another search when a doorway they hadn't noticed opened up to reveal the missing boy. Sasuke stood there a minute then closed the door and continued on as if he hadn't seen all their startled stares. Kakashi, Iruka and Tsunade followed him until he stopped.

Kakashi blinked then frowned slightly when he recognized the area. It was the training field he had taken the then three new genin to discover if he would be able to teach them. "Sasuke, where's Naruto?" He asked plainly, not bothering to mask his emotions like normal.

"Did you know...how strong he is...how strong he'll be? Aniki knew, he said he would be one of the strongest shinobi alive...to ever live...the strongest, I didn't believe him, that dobe couldn't be someone like that." The raven haired boy muttered almost inaudibly.

Tsunade frowned and took a step forward. "Where is Naruto?"

Sasuke turned his eyes wide with anger and his teeth bared. "Why do you all care about him, that dobe, he...Aniki was the same, talking about him like he was special, all because of that monster! He left Aniki left I told him that if he liked that monster so much then he was welcome to take him..."  
  
In a sudden blur of movement Tsunade's hand rose up then fell, striking Sasuke and leaving his eyes wide open and his cheek red. "You stupid, STUPID boy! You gave up your team mate, one of your fellow leaf to an enemy because of jealousy?!"

Iruka swore and turned away from them and disappeared back into the building where everyone was waiting. Kakashi watched him go then sighed in frustration and turned back to the other two. "How long ago did they leave?"

Sasuke remained unmoving merely staring off into the distance eyes open wide in surprise. Finally he blinked and raised a hand to his cheek. "They...left...before, when you were setting everything up."

Kakashi turned his gaze away from the boy who was slowly recovering from the shock and instead focused it on the furious Tsunade. "Godaime, if you send out Anbu now you might catch them."

Tsunade scowled at him. "That's a lie and you know it Kakashi, he's gone." She said angrily then turned her full attention back to Sasuke. "You will answer for this Uchiha, believe me."

The tone of her voice left little doubt that she meant what she said, nor did her eyes.

When they headed back to the others they were confronted by several worried, angry and disbelieving faced and one question. "Is it true?"

It was hard to answer because there were so many ways of interpreting it.

Did Sasuke betray them again?

Did Itachi really take Naruto with them?

Was Naruto really gone?

Yes...

Just...Yes.

Short and....can't really say short and sweet here can I? Well sorry it's so small but there's more on the way, but this was short for a reason, I'm not exactly sure what it was other to emphasize the fact that Itachi isn't completely sugary sweet here and also that Sasuke does and will continue to get what he deserves for the bad decisions he makes as seen above snicker w00t Go Tsunade!


	6. Leaving Things Behind

**KEY**: bold Italic dream

Italic thoughts

****

Chapter 6 

****

A month later

Naruto looked over his shoulder once more even though he knew Konoha was no longer in sight, even though he knew it had been several days since they crossed the border into Earth country, even though he knew it had been days since they had left Fire country.

"Naruto?"

His head snapped around and he blinked.

Itachi gazed back at him from over his shoulder. "Is something wrong?"

The blond shook his head slowly. "No...not really....anou...are you sure it was okay for me to leave?"

Kisame barked a laugh and slung and arm around Naruto's shoulders. "Forget about it kid, you're with us now. We'll teach you everything you need to know to make that dream of yours real."

"Really?" The teen asked uncertainly.

"Of course, you're our friend aren't you? We look after our friends, we'll keep you alive and teach you and you'll do the same for us." The taller man informed the boy with a grin. "Plus," He added. "If your Godaime welcomed Itachi back after what he did, then she'll throw you a party when you get back."

"I guess so..."

Itachi watched as Kisame gave the boys shoulders a quick squeeze then let go. "Everything will be fine, Naruto." He said quietly then adjusted his cloak against a sudden gust of cold air.

Naruto nodded slowly but he frowned anyway, it felt strange, crossing borders into other countries without a mission, without his team, without his teacher. But then again, Itachi and Kisame said they were his teachers now.

Kisame noticed the frown and grinned. "How about I teach you while we go, it's going to be a while till we get to the next village and anything's better than silence."

The blond visibly brightened at the proposal and nodded eagerly, regaining his warmth and enthusiasm. "Yeah! Nah, nah, what are you going to teach me? I bet it's a real strong jutsu, right?"

Itachi smiled at the boy as they walked. "How about some healing jutsu's, it's no good if you know strong offensive jutsu's if you're too injured to use them."

The other man nodded then made a face. "Fine, fine."

It took considerably less time than they expected for Naruto to learn how to used all of the healing jutsu's they both knew, it took less than five minutes for him to master each and every one of them, the fact that there was over eighty of them set both Kisame and Itachi slightly on edge.

"Nah, Kisame, that was too easy, isn't there anything harder? I was kinda thinking it would be harder since you said they were strong but most of them were all easy." Naruto said in a miffed tone.

Kisame and Itachi exchanged glances then Kisame plastered on a grin. "Well what do you expect, you're definitely going to be the next Hokage of Konoha!" He said jovially.

Naruto's grin was instantaneous and it was filled them both with a kind of warmth as if he were the sun itself. "Yeah? See, I told them I'd be Hokage one day!"

Itachi smiled despite himself. "Then you need to learn how to fight like one."

3 weeks, 5 days later

Tsunade sighed and cast a baleful glance at the piles of paperwork that littered her desk. Reports from the most part, from messengers she had sent out to find Jiraiya and to send him back.

Nearly two months had passed since Naruto had disappeared along with Itachi and Kisame. A month and no word came back to her about any sightings or anything, he could be dead for all she knew.

She steeled herself at that thought and swore that when Jiraiya got back she would do her best to beat the crap out of the pervert.

A puff of smoke appeared before her desk and cleared to reveal Kakashi. "Yo."

One fine eyebrow raised at the greeting. "Yo." She returned wryly.

It had gotten to be a game, one would pop up at any given time for any given reason and they greeted each other the same way. The trick was finding the other person, although for Kakashi it was slightly easier to find Tsunade because eventually she had to return to her office.

"There was another message for over near Wind country, they say that he was spotted heading towards Hidden Sand." He reported, his bored expression in place as usual.

Despite appearances Kakashi was almost as concerned about Naruto's disappearance as Tsunade and Iruka were, it was strange but somehow the two had turned into both older brother and older sister without really intending to. Kakashi wasn't as bad, being a friend but still being drawn to Naruto's irresistible persona just like everyone else who paid attention to what was happening.

"Are you talking about Naruto or the pervert?" Tsunade inquired dully.

The silver haired man coughed to clear his throat and scratched the back of his head as if trying to come up with a way to answer without agreeing to the question.

She relented with a slight shake of her head. "Jiraiya. You're sure that's what the message said?"

"It was a Hunter-nin that reported it."

Tsunade simply nodded. A week after Naruto had disappeared she was forced to send out the Hunter-nins of Konoha but with strict instructions that Naruto was to be brought back alive and unharmed and that she didn't care what happened to anyone who he happened to be with. Ever since then she had been getting reports of possible sightings from each country, but it wasn't the Hunter-nins that were making the reports, for some reason the peasantry were sending letters and reports about seeing this or that but no one had a clue why.

"Fine, get an Anbu team to leave as soon as possibly, I want Jiraiya back here before the end of the month." She commanded then turned back to her work.

Kakashi made a mock salute before disappearing. Over the last month Kakashi had somehow been elected as Tsunade's second in command, everyone knew for some reason that if Kakashi gave an order it wasn't him giving the order it was Tsunade speaking through him. People had shown respect to him before because of his strength and quick mind but now he had Konoha's full respect simply because he had the Godaime's.

Tsunade sighed and pulled down the one of the scrolls of the highest pile.

Time, it would take time to do what they needed to and that was what they suddenly seemed to have an abundance of but at the same time all time had disappeared.

It was strange, just the other day Sakura had come and told him that she was taking her chuunin exam along with Ino, Kiba and the others but for some reason he wasn't doing the same.

He sat there exactly the same as every other day under the huge tree that Naruto had taken a liking to then had fallen out of and blamed him for the bruised shoulder he got from it. He sat there, thinking. Silence filled every part of the Uchiha compound with the exception of the few birds that had always made their homes in the trees there.

Tall trees, almost as tall as the buildings themselves but still dwarfed by this one tree.

Sasuke leaned back against it and let out a sigh, it was something he never really understood, why sitting here like this, leaning against this tree, always managed to calm his mind, his emotions, himself, whenever things got out of hand.

One hand raised to his cheek in remembrance, it was why he was here, day after day since his brother had departed his mind recalled what happened, the things he said and the consequence of his actions. He remembered how Tsunade had struck him and even though there was no chakra behind the move he could still feel her blinding fury at what he had done.

It stung.

Usually knowing that he could have such a great affect on people was a bonus for him, a weapon he could use when he needed to, but now...

Now it seemed that his weapon was a double edged sword, he had hurt but he had been hurt in turn.

Sasuke stared up at a branch just above and to the left of him and watched as a mother bird fed her children.

Why did it hurt?

"Hinata-san...please, you have to eat something."

Hinata ignored the persistent voice that came from behind her. She had returned to the main house the same day that Naruto had disappeared after leaving at the end of the chuunin exams when everything went suddenly wrong. At first she had seen it as a burden, something that would interfere with her dream but now she thought of it as an asset.

The Hyuuga main house held an abundance of knowledge about almost anything you could possibly think of, so now she was searching through the restricted library for the information she needed.

The servants of the main house were forbidden to enter this particular library on pain of death so her own simply stood at the entrance and called into to her, pleading with her.

She shook her head to clear it then scanned the scroll she had just picked up.

There, she'd found it, finally.

The Godaime had told them what had happened to Naruto when she had invited them to his party, she'd told them the reason he was put into hospital and what had been done to save him. They were forbidden to tell anyone else what they had been told but that didn't mean she wasn't allowed to find out what was behind Naruto's sudden illness.

And here it was, after two months of searching she'd finally found what she was looking for.

Now for the Hokage.

"I wanted to know, so I looked. I couldn't find anything in the open library so I went to the restricted one."

Tsunade nodded for the girl to continue, for some reason she wouldn't be surprised if this girl Hinata Hyuuga had actually managed to find out what had happened. From what she had heard since she had become Hokage the girl was in love with the mischievous blond.

Hinata frowned and pulled a green scroll out of her yukata, somewhere along the line she had begun to wear the old traditional clothing like everyone else who lived in the house, it suited her very well now that she had matured a little more.

"Uncontrollable shaking, erratic chakra, fluttering heartbeat, sweating and loss of consciousness." Hinata read out loud. "These are the basic side affects of a backfired jutsu."

"That explains most of his behavior but it doesn't explain how everything froze and how his chakra moved about in plain sight the way it did." Tsunade mused softly, a slight frown appearing across her face.

The teen nodded. "I thought the same thing so I kept looking, that's when I found this." She said and pulled an black scroll out of her sleeve then unraveled it to the place she wanted. "Flares of chakra that are burning cold and freeze anything it ouches alive or not."

Tsunade's head snapped up. "What's that?" She demanded.

Hinata quickly moved forward and handed both scrolls over to her. "It's a common characteristic for an ice demon."

"An ice demon...?"

"Hn."

Without warning the doors of Tsunade's office burst open and the Anbu escort moved out of hiding into position around the office. The leader of the Hyuuga main branch strode in without a care, his focus automatically fixed on Hinata.

"So you are here...Forgive me Godaime-sama, I've come to collect the child and the items she stole." He said smoothly, ignoring the dozen Anbu that lined the room.

Hinata cast a quick and desperate gaze toward Tsunade but it was all she needed to know something wasn't right. "No, no. Instead I should beg your forgiveness for not coming to you first. You see Hinata and I have been working on something for a while now and these scrolls contain vital information that I need so I must ask to borrow them for a time."

A muscle in his neck spasmed, the only indication that he felt anything. "Then I will take the girl and leave you to work."

"Ah that too I'm afraid I'll have to deny you, you see it was Hinata's agile mind that's helped me get as far as I have and if I let her go home now I'll be left stranded so if you don't mind I'll keep her here with me, of course I'll make sure she works to repay the favor." Tsunade said feigning a smile.

For a moment he stood there in silence, jaw clenched tight then he bowed formally and gave Hinata one last glance before he turned on his heel and left.

The Anbu relaxed their positions somewhat and Tsunade beckoned two of them over. "From now on I want at least four Anbu guarding Hinata Hyuuga at all times, they're not to leave her side for any reason."

The bowed curtly then left to see that her order was seen to.

Tsunade turned back to the pale girl and sighed. "I knew things wouldn't stay quiet for long."

"Are you sure you don't have a jutsu or two you haven't told me about?"

Itachi growled at Kisame, it was the fifth time he'd asked that question within the hour. "Yes, how about yourself?"

Kisame shook his head. "No, that's all of them...you know we're screwed."

"How so?" The dark haired man inquired softly, one fine eyebrow raised.

"We've already taught him all the jutsu's we know, ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu...the kid knows everything we do."

"You're point being?"

The taller man sighed. "We've got nothing left to teach the kid, what's going to stop him from turning tails and leaving."

Itachi watched his companion silently for a moment. "There are two of us."

"He's stronger, though." Kisame pointed out bitterly.

"He doesn't know that, plus, we can introduce him to people who know things we don't." Itachi reminded him calmly.

Kisame opened to reply but stopped when Naruto appeared from around the corner. "Hey kid, we were just talking about you."

The blond tilted his head to one side. "Really?"

"Yes, it seems we don't have anything left to teach you." The raven haired man informed the teen in a matter of fact tone then smiled slightly at the sad expression on the boys face. "But, now that you're ready we're going to take you to meet other people who can teach you more things."

Hearing that the blond beamed. Two months and he had learned absolutely everything he could from his two older companions, he had even begun pressing the limits and began creating more of his own jutsu's to add to his collection and had taught Itachi and Kisame a few jutsu's he had created or had at least told them stories about maneuvers he had seen done.

It was a strange, somewhat tense relationship at times but Naruto was determined to see that it worked, so much so that he often ended up as the peacekeeper and if not him then it was Itachi. Both Itachi and Kisame had agreed that it was a little unnerving how much influence the blond had over them but knew they were powerless to do anything about it. The boy had wormed his way into their hearts and there he would stay no matter what happened down the line in the unknown future.

"Nah....where are we going then?" The teen asked curiously.

Kisame grinned while Itachi looked him up and down intently. "First, we need to get you new clothes. You've done a lot of growing in the past two months."

"You think so?!" The boy asked with wide eyed joy.

Itachi nodded. "There's a tailor here that I know, we'll go there now then we can be ready to leave for Wind country tomorrow morning."

Naruto led the march there turning this way or that as Itachi instructed whenever they needed to change direction, Kisame on the other hand had elected to stay 'home' to make sure they had enough supplies to make the trip, two months of traveling with the blond boy had taught him to always have at least four times the standard amount ready when it came time to feed him.

It had taken them a grand total of ten minutes to get to the shop, it would have taken less except Itachi had to convince a group of misfits that he and Naruto were not the people you messed around with over something like a collision, even if it was Naruto's fault. He sat there now waiting patiently for Naruto to appear from behind the changing screen.

He had gotten Naruto to try various styles of clothes to find out which gave best freedom of movement and could conceal weapons the easiest while still looking peaceful. The first few designs received mere shakes of his head, simply because they appeared to be far too intimidating to blend in. After those They had picked out several yukatas, a small collection of pants, jackets and shirts and a few other behind the counter items that included an authentic Anbu uniform.

That one had surprised Naruto and he had rushed behind the screen to try it on, it had been a bit looser than he would of liked but Itachi had pointed out that by the time Naruto stopped growing it would be a perfect fit.

There was only one thing left now, a black silk kimono with hidden pockets and a trick seem to hide needles in. At first Naruto had been dubious about the outfit but Itachi pointed out that it would help him blend into the night a little more, not that he could do anything about his bright golden locks. Itachi frowned considering that maybe it would be easier if they died the boys hair black, or at least dark brown, that way he wouldn't stand out as much.

"Nah...do I really need something like this?"

The voice broke him out of his reverie and he looked up to see the very boy he was thinking about. He sat there speechless for a moment just staring then nodded. "Yes...but, leave it for special occasions. Put on one of the yukatas for now."

"Okay."

A soon as Naruto was out of sight again Itachi released a breath he had not been aware he was holding. It was strange to say the least that seeing this blond cheerful and determined boy wearing that item of clothing would affect him in such a way, but then, maybe it wasn't the boy himself but the person his image reflected.

3 weeks later

Jiraiya sighed, he hadn't expected Tsunade to start yelling earlier before he got into sight range, but then again each of the sennin knew what the others were capable of.

Now he knew the story behind all her pent up anger and frustration he couldn't begrudge her, her chance to vent, even if she was taking it out on him.

As the story carried on he failed to suppress a shudder at the images his mind concocted of Naruto huddled up in hiding and shivering uncontrollably then laying there screaming in pain.

"So, do you think you can fill in the blanks?" Tsunade asked after she had finally settled down.

"Not really, I used a jutsu on him before I left to help him train but other than that..."

"What was it?"

"Beast Senses, why?"

"Is there any possibility that it could back fire?" She asked, frowning.

He shook his head. "No, I've used it several times before remember, there's no way it can backfire."

Tsunade had a sudden idea and she leaned forward almost as if she wanted to press the idea directly into Jiraiya's own brain. "What if he tried to replicate it? What if he tried to do it himself for a bigger boost..."

"....and did something wrong." He finished then sighed. "It makes sense especially when you remember Naruto always wants things to be bigger and better."

"Then the only thing we need to figure out is what he did instead."

Jiraiya grunted. "You said something about the Hyuuga girl?"

"Hinata, she found some information..." She said then sorted through the scrolls on her desk until she found the two Hinata had given her. "Here, in this one it points out the side effects of a backfired jutsu, but in this one it describes various demon characteristics."

"Demons?"

Tsunade nodded then went out to explain the similarities with what had happened to Naruto and the information listed in the scrolls. They sat there for several hours and talked until the moon began to set before they came to a conclusion.

"Somehow he summoned a demon."

****

Man I didn't realize how bad my spelling was...well not really but still...even five is too many in my eyes, at least if it's my own work. Have you ever noticed that whenever something happens to Naruto, it's never simple? shakes head Probably gets it from his father...you know the whole like father like son thing...hmmm...now there's an idea...nope, been there been done plus it might just be me but it seems to come off a little awkward when people try to tell you how life was for Naruto's parents....I do wonder what happened to his mother though........hmmmm...


	7. Demon

**KEY**: bold Italic dream

Italic thoughts

****

Chapter 7 

****

Two weeks later

The trio had continued their journey into Wind country and had found the person they were looking for with only a slight amount of difficulty.  
  
The man they were looking for, Genai Hatsura, was a retired Anbu. He lived exactly a mile out from Hidden Sand village and was fairly well known as a person who liked his privacy. Not that it lasted long after Itachi and Kisame showed up with Naruto in tow. Everyday someone from Sand village would knock on his gate then his door and inquire if he was coping well with the earthquakes...little did they know it was one of his guests causing them.

Genai had been instructed to teach the blond boy all the jutsu's he knew be they, taijutsu, genjutsu or ninjutsu. It took Naruto a while to learn some of them, not as long as his new teacher thought it would but longer than it had taken him to learn the hundreds of techniques that Kisame and Itachi had taught him.

One or two of the stronger ones took his nearly a week to get right.

Just like the earth attack that had been causing earthquakes all over Wind country.

It wasn't that Naruto wasn't eager to learn the new jutsu's, the problem was that he had a hard time limiting the amount of chakra he poured into each jutsu.

Itachi sat next to Genai and watched while Kisame and the blond sparred.

"How old is he?"

"Seventeen."

"Where did you find the boy?" Genai asked as he ran a hand through his short brown hair.

"My old village."

The brunette blinked. "I didn't know Konoha started turning out brats like that, they giving the pregnant women steroids or something?"

Itachi smirked and shook his head. "No, he's one of a kind, he has...special circumstances."

Genai frowned and crossed his arms. "Yeah, like what?"

"You don't need to know."

"Did you want me to teach the brat or not?"

Itachi stared up at the older man for a moment then turned his crimson gaze toward Naruto. "You remember the story about the Kyuubi that attacked Konoha?"

The brunette frowned thoughtfully then realization dawned on him. "You mean this is the kid?"

"It's him."

"So the seal..."

Itachi shook his head. "That's a different one, the Fire Kami seal. The Kyuubi's seal is on his stomach."

"Fire Kami seal...they used that on him?" Genai muttered thoughtfully. "So how do you know where the other seal is?" He asked with a leer.

The younger man looked up at him again and glowered. "Idiot, I've seen it, I've sparred against him."

"That's all?"

"You're disgusting."

Genai laughed. "Can't blame me for trying...You little shit! Stop wrecking my house!" He screamed, suddenly leaping to his feet.

Naruto stood and sighed, throwing a quick glare to Kisame. "This is your fault."

"This is the second beam you're broken since you started earlier! Did you want my house to collapse on me?!"

Kisame stood off to one side grinning wolfishly.

"Kisame."

The grin disappeared.

"You should clean up the mess and pay for the damages, since you're older and clearly should have known better."

Kisame's jaw dropped and his gaze slowly swung to Itachi where the raven haired man was getting up from his place in the shade and making his way over to the blond. "Oi...you're not serious are you...?"

"You'd better start now otherwise you'll miss dinner." Itachi told him pleasantly.

Naruto let out a loud whoop of joy and dashed over to Itachi's side and impulsively hugged him before poking his tongue out at Kisame. "Thanks It-chan."

Itachi raised one delicate eyebrow at the nickname. "It-chan?"

"Yeah, I decided you needed a nickname since we're friends and we've been traveling for so long." Naruto informed him without letting go of his embrace.

Itachi let one of his arms rest against the blonds shoulders absently noting that he and the blond were almost at equal height. "I suppose you gave one to Kisame too then?"  
  
Naruto turned his gaze to where Kisame knelt picking up pieces of splintered wood while Genai stood over him yelling assorted profanities. "He's just K-chan, I think I'll call Genai, GenGen from now on."

"I don't think he'd appreciate it, the man lives with a stick up his rear." Itachi muttered as followed Naruto's gaze to where the said man was still screaming.

"I heard that you inconsiderate prick, this is you're fault you know, you brought them both here!" Genai said, turning on his heel and marching towards them.

Itachi felt Naruto tense next to him. "Get over it Hatsura, you know you enjoy having them around." He said calmly.

Genai growled and doubled his pace. "Just about as much as I'll enjoy beating the crap out of you for letting them smash my house to pieces!" He shouted as he clenched one hand into a fist and raised it as if to punch Itachi.

Lightning fast Naruto's free arm shot out and caught the brunette in the chest in an open palm strike that sent him flying backwards, soaring into Kisame then sending them both into the large wooden fence that was more than two hundred meters away.

Itachi watched in rigid shock as Naruto's arm slowly lowered back down to where it was before then sighed as the blond nuzzled his face into his shoulder. "Naruto..."

"No one may touch what is mine."

Something about the blonds voice caused Itachi to shudder involuntarily and he stood perfectly still as the blond raised his face to regard his own. "No one may touch what is mine." He repeated.

Itachi stared into Naruto's eyes in surprise, gone were the wide blue orbs that held warmth for everyone and everything, they had been replaced by red glowing eyes, his right eye to Itachi's shock was not only red, but it contained the Sharingan.

The eyes flashed for a moment and Naruto raised his free hand to trace the taller mans jaw. "Mine." He said quietly before the Sharingan faded and his eyes returned to his normal blue.

The teen blinked up at Itachi then looked around. "Nah...what just happened? Where's K-chan and Genai?"

Itachi frowned slightly then raised a hand to point in the general direction the two had flew after Naruto's sudden attack. "Somewhere over there."

The blond tilted his head to one side. "Huh..."

"Let's go inside, they can finish picking up the mess." Itachi suggested then steered the blond into the house.

Two hours later

"Stop whining Genai, it's not that bad."

"Shut up you prick, you weren't the one he hit." Genai bit back swinging a lazy punch in Kisame's direction.

Kisame grunted and batted the fist away. "Stop bitching, it's only four broken ribs, you'll live."

Itachi's head appeared from the doorway to Naruto's room. "Quiet."

They both glowered at the head...as soon as it was out of sight again.

Itachi moved back to sit by Naruto on the stool and narrowed his gaze again. "So the last thing you remember is Genai coming toward us, nothing after that?"

Naruto shook his head mutely and turned his gaze to the doorway. "Are you sure they'll be okay...I didn't mean to hurt them."

"They'll be fine, they've both had worse injuries, a few broken bones, sprains, cuts and bruises aren't anything dangerous for them." Itachi told him calmly. "Naruto take off your shirt for me."

"Eh?"

Itachi smile faintly at the blonds reaction. "I want to check your seals."

"Oh, okay." He said, relaxing then grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head then folded it neatly and sat it beside him. "I'm still not used to seeing this." He said, motioning with one hand to the blood red seal that covered his body.

"It's not something most people can get used to." Itachi said calmly then frowned. "This doesn't look good."

"Huh, what's wrong?"

Itachi remained silent as he examined the seals. The seal that held Kyuubi in place was flicking in and out of existence precariously. Contrary to the Kyuubi's seal the blood red fire seal was if possible even more vibrant but only in the area surrounding the smaller seal.

"It-chan...what's wrong?" Naruto asked quietly, panic starting to slip into his voice.

The older man turned towards the door. "Kisame, come here."

Seconds later Kisame appeared in the doorway with a grimace. "What do you want?"

"Come and tell me what you think?"

"It-chan?"

Itachi looked up at Naruto and put a hand on his shoulder while Kisame limped over to them then kneeled painfully next to Itachi. "Hmph." His breath hitched as the muscles in his right leg were stretched. Absently he poked at the seals while he looked them over then sighed and looked up at Naruto.

"Say kid, you've made out your will right?"

"Will..." Naruto repeated quietly, his eyes large.

"Yeah, so we know who to give your stuff to after you die."

"Die..." If possible the blonds eyes widened even further.

Itachi glared at Kisame but the taller man continued. "Hn, you know it would be bad if everyone started fighting over your things at your funeral...that is if they give you a funeral, with the Kyuubi I'm not too sure about that. You know what I'm sorry about, you never got to see your dream through, died before he could become Hokage and away from his home in a place where no one knows him."

Naruto's eyes began to water and without warning he launched at Itachi, grabbing hold of him and holding on tight, as if he could stop death itself. "It-chan...I don't want to die yet." He whispered against the older mans chest.

The Uchiha male glared daggers at Kisame before wrapping his arms around the blond, suddenly worried about his uncharacteristic display of fear and the child like way he responded to it. "Don't listen to him Naruto, he's got a stick up his rear because he got hurt, you're not going to die."

"Sure he is, I'm gonna kill him for busting up my ribs."

They turned towards the doorway where Genai was standing, resting on the doorframe for support. "Stop bitching old man." Kisame growled irritably.

"Who are you calling old you dried up fish? I'm only three years older than you!"

"Something as pathetic as you should know better than to speak in the presence of your superiors." A low, slightly muffled voice said.

All eyes turned to Itachi then to the form in his arms.

The blond teen slowly straightened but maintained his grip around Itachi's waist. "You're noisy, weak and unwanted. Filthy humans."

They stared at him in mute shock and confusion at the sudden transformation in his persona and watched as he turned his head and nipped lightly at Itachi's neck with his teeth. "You should be more like this one, both of you, not the pathetic shells of living beings you are."

"Oi..." Kisame started but was abruptly cut off as Naruto stood in one fluid motion and stood towering over him.

"Something as weak as you shouldn't speak, slave." In one lightning fast movement Naruto swung one arm and it collided into Kisame shoulder in what almost appeared to be a playful swat, except that Kisame was sent flying backwards into the wall.

Just as the blond was about to advance and do further damage Itachi caught hold of the teenage body, wrapping his arms around his waist and pressing his cheek against his bare side in an act of submissiveness.

"Are such lowly slaves worth your time?" He asked quietly against his side.

He stopped in his tracks then turned his gaze downwards and smirked. "And you know what my time is worth?"

"Let me get rid of them and I can show you."

"Show me?"

Itachi nodded then released his grip slightly and turned his head just enough for him to gently kiss then lick his side.

"You will willingly trade your body to me for their safe passage?"

Itachi merely nodded.

"Get rid of them, I have no use for them but it's time I claimed what's mine."

With that he walked out of the circle of Itachi's arms and left the room not even bothering to acknowledge Genai as he passed him. Without waiting another second Itachi moved to Kisame's side and propped him up, keeping clear of his wounded shoulder. "Start traveling now, go as fast as you can. You need to get to Konoha and tell Tsunade that the Kyuubi's seal isn't working properly anymore. I'll follow with Naruto as soon as I can so tell her to be ready."

Kisame grunted as Itachi helped to lift him off the floor then nodded. "I'll leave now."

Genai moved out of the way as Kisame limped past him then moved over to stand next to Itachi. "You know what you're doing don't you?"

"Yes." He replied quietly then moved to start taking off his clothes. "I need to buy enough time for Kisame to get word and keep Kyuubi occupied. I can't use his power if all he wants to do is tear countries to shreds."

"How do you know it will work the way you want it to?" Genai asked in a harsh whisper.

Itachi stared into the brunette eyes for a moment before pulling his shirt over his head and folding it neatly to rest beside Naruto's own that had been discarded minutes before. "Kyuubi's an upper level fire demon who's been sealed inside the body of an innocent boy for the last seventeen years. Ask any male what it's like to be deprived of sex for years on end. It will work." He said calmly then began to work on his pants. "You need to stay away from here for as long as possible, I doubt he'll hesitate to tear you apart or anyone else that bothers him and I need you alive for a little longer. Now leave."

Genai spared one last glance at Itachi before turning and making his way out of the room. Itachi watched him leave then sighed and let his pants fall to the ground before stepping out of them to pick them up. As soon as all his clothes were neatly folded on the bed he took one last deep breath and swallowed the remains of his pride before moving to find where the demon possessed boy had wandered off to.

****

Hmmm...I think it's safe to sat there's some big doodoo approaching...and Itachi trading off his body...hmmm my mind is evil and poor Itachi, I wander what's going to happen? Innocent look What?


	8. Arrival

**KEY**: bold Italic dream

Italic thoughts

****

**Chapter 8**

****

A week later

The Hokage's office was in an uproar.

Kisame had arrived an hour earlier, half dead from exhaustion and from various wounds he had received from here or there along his frantic journey.

When he had first arrived at the gates to Konoha, Anbu and jounin were jumping out of the shadows from every direction to surround him and keep him in place. Tsunade made an appearance less than a minute later with Kakashi, Hinata and Shizune standing behind her.

"Why have you returned and where is Naruto?"

He grunted and shifted from one foot to the other, his exhausted muscles screaming in protest and the pain from the injuries he had sustained from the blond genin flaring up monetarily. "Straight to business...good." He said then without further preamble he let his legs give way and collapsed heavily on the ground with a solid thud then raised his head to meet her eyes. "I don't know how far ahead of them I am so we have to make this quick." He closed his eyes then took a deep breath. "When I left the brat was fine physically but...there's something wrong, with the seals. We've been training him since we left and he's been getting stronger, a lot stronger and fast, it only took him two months to learn everything we did. We took him to someone we know for more, we were there sparing for a while then suddenly he attacked our 'friend' and was weird for a second then he went back to normal. Itachi got him inside and we talked to him for a bit and Itachi had a look at the seals." His voice dropped down to the barest of whispers, just loud enough for Tsunade to hear. "The Kyuubi's seal is fading, it's barely there in comparison to the fire seal."

Whatever Tsunade was originally planning on saying went unsaid as she frowned, her senses narrowing onto the man seated on the dusty road. "You saw that?"

He nodded curtly. "Yeah, he's not himself anymore, he looks the same but what makes Naruto, Naruto isn't there."

The silver haired jounin moved forward to stand next to the blond woman. "Do you think the seal's broken?"

"Not yet, but I don't think it's going to be much longer. Itachi was going to stall him for as long as he could so I could get here and warn you, he thought you guys might know someway to stop what's going on. He'll be coming the same way I did so if you want to evacuate your people you should do it now, before they get here."

Tsunade nodded then turned her attention to the crowd of leaf shinobi. "Start moving, evacuate the village, move everyone as far east as you can, carry the children if you have to I don't want you to stop until you're well away from the village, two days at least. I don't want to risk anyone."

In a sudden blur of motion and wind the shinobi were gone, moving from house to house, shop to shop evacuating everyone.

With a world weary sigh she turned back to Kisame and moved to kneel next to him. "You look like shit."

Kisame grinned. "You're flattering me, if I look like shit then I look better than I feel. He gave me a couple good whacks."

"I bet." Kakashi muttered. "I'm going to check up on a few things."

Tsunade nodded then watched as he disappeared then turned her attention back to Kisame. "How long do you think it will be until they get here?"

"Shit, I don't know...a day or two, fuck...it could be hours for all I know." He bit out angrily as she made a few hand seals then started to use her chakra to heal him.

"Either way it's something at least. Is there anything else you want to tell me before things start to heat up?" She asked absently as she worked.

"Yeah." Kisame's voice dropped to something akin to a whispered growl. "Itachi paid a high price so I could get here and warn you about what's coming, so don't bite his head off after we've finished sorting this shit out."

Tsunade blinked in confusion then nodded. "How high."

"His pride and...his body." He added, his voice barely above a whisper.

His breath hissed as he breathed, trying to ignore the searing pain that was caused by Naruto's nails as he raked them across his body and over his thighs, reopening several small wounds that had been sustained the same way.

He felt his blood trickle out from the wounds and down his body and shivered as a hot tongue appeared from between the lush pink lips to lick at the trails. He gazed up through half lidded eyes at the source of his pain and groaned quietly at the sight before him.

Naruto was straddling his thighs as naked as he was, his lightly tanned skin perfect and unblemished except for the seals that adorned his body. His long sun gold hair streaming down his back and over his shoulders as he leaned down to clean away the fresh blood. His red eyes gleamed, one eyes simply a demonic blood red while the other contained the Sharingan from having so much Uchiha blood pumped into him to create the fire seal. He was staring directly into Itachi's eyes as he licked and caressed his skin an unmistakable wicked and foxlike grin on his face.

Hearing Itachi's groan Naruto's grin broadened and with agonising slowness he ground their erections together earning a stifled cry from the ebon haired male beneath him. He slid along the sweaty expanse of Itachi's torso and brought his lips up to the other mans and kissed him lingeringly while he reached down with his free hand and began to stroke the older mans erection, earning him a whimpering moan as he continued to touch the flushed skin.

He smiled, pleased with the reaction and leaned back to straddle his thighs again and gave him one last teasing caress before he stood and turned his attention to the line of women pressed against the back wall.

When they had first arrived in the small village they had received naught but stares from passer-bys as they noticed the leash and collar that were wrapped around Itachi's neck and held almost absently by Naruto, minutes later though three quarters of the village had been slaughtered leaving only a dozen women that Naruto had felt were the most pleasing to the eye.

They had gather them into the a house they had picked at random and had made them stand by and watch as Naruto and Itachi had sex time after time and eventually one or two of the women were dragged kicking and sobbing to join in by Naruto. A couple of the women had tried to resist at first but they had long since given up any hope for of escaping after two of them were killed for trying to attack the two men and save themselves.

The remaining group of women were now more complacent in their role and did whatever they were told with question or hesitation. Naruto's eyes scanned the line before picking out two women and motioned for them to come to him.

They moved quickly but carefully, sidestepping the dismembered pieces of the women that had tried to fight earlier and moved to stand in front of him. He smiled and watched them through narrowed eyes for a moment before moving in and kissing one on the lips. She was of even height with him and had long jet black hair to match Itachi's and brilliant emerald green eyes, her skin was fair and unblemished and her lips were a lush pink. He tugged at her kimono and easily disrobed her before giving her a last bite to her collar bone and pointed to Itachi. "Fuck him." He said simply then watched as she nodded submissively and moved over to Itachi and positioned herself above his hips then using one hand to keep him steady she lowered herself onto him.

He let out a stifled moan and as she moved down she let out a strangled cry. Finally they were completely joined and she bit her lip and went to work moving up and down his length and Naruto noticed a slight trail of blood between them as she moved.

"A virgin." He remarked absently then shrugged and turned to the other woman he had picked out. She was a head shorted than he was with honey blond hair and azure blue eyes that reminded him so much of his host. He grinned as he ripped her clothes from her and eyed her body. Firm and delicate both from youth and hard work and proud firm breasts that seemed to plead to be touched.

With a low chuckle he seated himself on the floor again and motioned for her to join him but as soon as she was close he grabbed hold of her and flipped her onto her back and roughly rammed into her, making her scream in pain.

He smiled.

"Good...scream for me."

Three days later

"They're coming." Kakashi informed them quietly. "I can definitely sense Itachi and the Kyuubi's chakra but there are several other people with them as well."

Tsunade frowned and turned to Kisame but he held up his hands before she could say anything. "I don't know, they probably stopped off at a few villages along the way. Whoever else there is down out there they're probably nothing more than play toys for Naruto."

"You mean Kyuubi." She interjected with a glare. "If we're right and Kyuubi is preferring to mate instead of outright destroying everything then we might have a better chance of dealing with it."

"What, you're going to offer it a nice cosy place to call it's own?"

"If it comes to that."

Kisame stared at Tsunade for a moment then turned away. "Shit."

"Yeah."

Kakashi sighed. "Well, here I go." He said quietly then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Kakashi and Naruto eyed each other for a moment taking in each significant difference between them before Kakashi's eyes slid over the group of tired woman at the teens back and before finally laying his eyes to rest on the shadow of the once proud man known as Uchiha Itachi.

The jounin cleared his throat and returned his eyes back to the demon wearing Naruto's body. "Kyuubi, my name..."

"I know who you are, did you think I've just been sleeping after your precious leader locked me away? Hatake Kakashi." He said with a foxlike grin.

Kakashi frowned. "Who are they?" He asked absently pointing to the group behind the teen.

"My pets, of course, did you think after being able to move around like this for the first time in all these years that I'd just sit there doing nothing?"

"Why did you come back here then?"

"It was convenient and I remember a few people here that sparked my interest."

Kakashi frowned and was about to say something but the sound of footsteps behind him stopped him. "Aniki?" Kakashi's eyes widened and he spun around to find Sasuke standing behind him dressed simply in a dark blue yukata with the Uchiha crest on the right breast.

Itachi took a step forward. "Get away from here, now."

Next to him Naruto smiled. "Here's one of them now." He purred quietly then without warning he dropped the leash he was holding and launched himself at the other teen but came to an abrupt stop with his hand just inches from his throat, his arm was visibly shaking.

He huffed disappointedly. "Stupid kit." He bit out quietly then turned away from the boy.

"Why didn't you attack?" Kakashi asked quietly as the blond walked past him to reclaim Itachi's leash.

The blond grinned. "The boy won't let me, ever since we passed the border into fire country I haven't been able to harm anyone he cares about, at least not these two." He said, referring to Itachi and Sasuke. "His screams are annoying." He added and tapped one temple to emphasize the meaning.

Without further warning Tsunade appeared, surrounded by her Anbu escort and with Jiraiya in tow and eyed the blond. "Kyuubi, what are your intentions regarding Konoha?"

"I want a den, so does the boy and he doesn't scream at me as much if I'm here."

"You're not going to try to destroy it?"

He growled in annoyance. "Don't you listen, the kit won't let me hurt anything he cares about and for some reason despite all the shit you people put him through he loves this place. I can't destroy it or it's people."

"Suppose I believe you, if I give you a place to stay what will you do?" She asked slowly.

"Sleep, eat, mate...whatever comes to mind." He answered absently.

They stood there for close to ten minutes regarding each other before Tsunade finally nodded. "I will give you somewhere to stay but you must stay there, unless I say otherwise, do you understand?"

He grinned at her in response.

The next day

"So far so good." Jiraiya muttered absently. "At least he isn't trying to destroy anything apart from the occasional piece of furniture."

Tsunade glared at him then sighed. "True, but the villagers will return in a few days and I'm not sure how he'll react to their presence."

"If what he said is true then Naruto isn't gone completely, he probably has more control over the Kyuubi's actions here because he's on familiar ground." Kakashi pointed out quietly.

"And if that's true then there's still a decent chance of getting out Naruto back." Iruka added hopefully.

A relieved sigh spread through the room then Tsunade turned to Hinata, who had stayed with her when the rest of the village had been evacuated. "Hinata, do you think you can find something that will get the job done?"

Hinata blushed rosily but smiled and bowed. "I'll try my best." And with that she turned and made her way out of the room accompanied by her escort.

Woohoo....I mean, no, bad Kyuubi, bad....hehehe...good boy


	9. Revelations

**KEY**: bold Italic dream

Italic thoughts

Chapter 9

Five days later

With one last thrust and a whimpered growl Naruto huffed and pulled out of the brunette woman he had been 'playing with' as he put it and moved away from her to go lay down next to Itachi on their large bed.

They had been given the Uchiha compound to stay in simply because it was one of the biggest residential areas in Konoha and it was a place familiar to both Itachi and Naruto.

Needless to say, Sasuke had been relocated elsewhere for the time being.

They had been like that for nearly a week now, just moving around the compound, partaking from it's food stores when they needed to and keeping close company.

Most of the time Itachi was allowed to sleep and recover his strength while Naruto turned his attention to the little group he had collected along their journey, choosing his mates while leaving three of the fifteen women specifically for Itachi, all of which were dark of hair and fair of skin.

It was an idea of his that worked out rather nicely. Since the Uchiha brat had decided it was his duty to avenge his clan and return it to it's former glory then he would give him a helping hand. He smiled to himself as his eyes turned to two of the women he had set aside for his plan, he could sense it, they were both within the first week of pregnancy. He allowed himself a quiet chuckle at the thought of what would happen when every one else began to notice.

His eyes slid across to the last one then narrowed slightly, he would have to take measures to see that she too fell pregnant.

Moving past her sleeping form his eyes fell on the twelve others who lay about the room, resting on beds made up of cushions and allowed his grin to surface again. He couldn't help but imagine the chaos that would ensue when the bitch Hokage discovered that not only was the Uchiha's women with child but his as well.

He moved away from Itachi to move around the naked slumbering bodies and occasionally nuzzled one or two of his favourites as he passed them, lingering next to the five that carried the beginnings of his young. Finally he came to a stop next to the last of the three dark haired females and bent down so his mouth was next to her ear.

"Wake up my pet, it's time to play again." He whispered into her ear then sat back on his heels and made a few complicated seals then reached out with one hand to touch her abdomen while the other came to rest on her forehead.

With a quiet groan she opened her eyes and stared up at him for a moment before getting up onto her knees and crawling her way over to the bed and climbed up onto it. Sensing someone close to him that was not Naruto Itachi stirred then woke and eyed the woman for a moment before letting out a tired sigh and taking hold of her. Gently moving around so he was on top of her he positioned himself at her entrance and slowly thrust into her, not surprised that she was already quite wet.

Over at the other side of the room Naruto grinned as he watched his toys mate.

It was true that he could destroy Konoha, but that didn't mean his young couldn't be raised to do just that.

Half an hour later

Kakashi came to a stop and the gates to the Uchiha compound and gave the Anbu on guard a friendly half-wave. "How are things going?"

"Loudly." One of the guards remarked dryly. "They've probably had more sex by now than all of Konoha has in the past five months."

The silver haired jounin shrugged absently. "At least it's keeping it busy."

"True, what can we do for you, Hatake-san?" The tallest of the squad inquired politely.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head then produced a scroll and handed it over to one of the Anbu. "Godaime-sama has requested that I check up on things."

"I pity you."

He chuckled wryly and nodded. "So do I, but a answer to the problem has been found."

There was a sigh of relief. "Thank Kami-sama."

"Everything's in order Hatake-san, you can proceed now." The Anbu he had given the scroll to told him calmly. "And...good luck."

Kakashi nodded then waited until the gates were opened enough for him to slip through before moving on into the compound. He noticed absently that the closer he got to the main building the stronger the scent of sex hung in the air. He moved into the building and checked each of the rooms but found them all empty save for the last one, the main bedroom that contained the group of women that had been with them when they arrived. As soon as he was away from the room he took a deep breath of clean air and mentally remarked on how strong the smell of sex was in that one room.

With a sigh he moved away from the building and came to the on grounds hot spring that was used for relaxing, but as he drew closer a familiar sound reached his ears. He sighed again as he recognised the voice and absently tried to ignore the string of moans and animalistic growls that drifted his way. Five minutes later a muffled scream reached his ears and he waited another minute before deciding that it was safe to continue on. Sure enough he found Itachi and Naruto in the hot spring.

Naruto was nuzzling Itachi's neck and cheek while the other man lay pressed against the blond, eyes half shut in exhaustion.

"What can I do for you Kakashi-san." Naruto's low voice drifted over to him and Kakashi couldn't help but notice the mocking tilt to the voice.

"Nothing really, I just came to check up on you." The silver haired jounin said in his usual bored tone.

Naruto turned his head away from the crook of Itachi's neck to gaze up at Kakashi, one eyebrow raised and a smirk on his lips. "And how am I doing?"

"Fairly well from what I can see."

"Hmmm."

Kakashi took a seat one on of the large rocks surrounding the hot spring and regarded the blond lazily. "So what about all those women back in the main room?"

"Stay away from them."

"Why?"

"That's none of your concern." He said through clenched teeth.

Kakashi shrugged then let his eyes roam over the naked skin before him. "Fine...you've grown up well."

Naruto eyed him in return and his eyes narrowed. "I could never totally understand the kits view of you, to him you were a lazy, stingy, perverted but cool guy...his words not mine...but there was something else I couldn't figure out. For some reason he was interested in you, but it wasn't clear how."

One silver eyebrow raised at the confession. "Interesting." He muttered then reached up to remove his forehead protector then his vest and lastly his kunai and shuriken pouch.

"You're leaving yourself defenceless."

"Not really, from what you just said I figured out that Naruto cares about me, so you can't hurt me."

"You shouldn't be so confident that the kit will stop me if I really wanted to do something." The blond remarked casually as he dislodged himself from Itachi and waded over to the other side of the steaming water where Kakashi was resting. "I could do anything I wanted to you."

"Oh? Like what?" Kakashi inquired curiously.

"Like this."

Without further warning one of the teens hands flashed out of the water and latched on to one of Kakashi's ankles in a vicelike grip, catching him by surprise then pulling him down into the water.

Kakashi re-emerged sputtering and wiped at his eyes for a moment to clear them. As suddenly as he pulled the older man into the water Naruto grabbed hold of the mans mask and ripped it down then grabbed his wrists and twisted them behind his back before launching a full scale onslaught on his mouth. When he finally let up they were both panting, Kakashi more so than Naruto.

"Like that huh?"

Naruto grinned at him and resumed his 'attack', moving from the kiss bruised lips to his neck before breaking off again. He growled in annoyance then let go of the silver haired mans wrists to tear at his clothes, within minutes the majority of his clothing was gone.

Naruto went to work on the pale flesh that was presented to him to busy to hear what Kakashi had whispered beneath his breath. He blinked and looked up at the jounin. "What?"

Kakashi merely smiled softly and took hold of the blonds head in his hands and kissed him.

As soon as he made contact chakra flared around the blond and he pushed away from Kakashi with a scream of rage. The chakra flared brighter and the blonds body began to spasm, almost as if it was trying to tear itself apart. Kakashi watched anxiously as slowly but surely the one body began to split into two wholes until finally they were two different bodies.

The silver haired jounin waited a moment longed as both people lost consciousness then scooped them both up around the waist and lifted their pale, naked and trembling bodies out of the water and onto the pebbled ground next to the hot spring. After he finished checking them over he turned in the water and retrieved his clothes and pulled his mask back over his face then turned to Itachi only to find the man hauling his body up out of the water. "About time." He remarked hoarsely before collapsing onto the ground.

Two days later

Tsunade sat back in her chair next to Naruto's hospital bed and allowed a small smile to make it's way across her lips. Naruto was recovering well and the forbidden jutsu they had to resort to, to get things under control had no side effects, except for one.

To get the Naruto they knew back they had to separate Naruto and the Kyuubi, resulting in them both having their own bodies to move around in, meaning to a certain degree the Kyuubi was free. Both bodies had the seal that was used to keep the Kyuubi sealed inside Naruto but only Naruto himself had the fire seal. Naruto retained his sun coloured hair while Kyuubi's hair, while the same length and texture as Naruto's was blood red in colour, a fact which both confused and amused her to a certain extent.

Both retained the same body shape and visible level of fitness and appeared to be the same height.

The people of Konoha had returned the previous day and things were starting to return to normal, with the exception of the Uchiha compound at both Itachi and Kakashi's request it had gone untouched, with the exception of a thorough airing out.

Tsunade was still having trouble trying to figure out what she would do with the fifteen women the altered Naruto/Kyuubi had picked up on the way there. She knew she couldn't send them back to their village after Itachi told her what had happened there and to add a higher level of annoyance to the problem when she had spoken to the women directly they had flatly refused to leave.

Whatever Kyuubi had done to win them over definitely worked well.

A groan came from the occupant of the bed next to her and she turned her attention back to the bed and watched as the teens eyes slowly fluttered open then looked around. "Welcome home Naruto." She whispered just loud enough so he could hear.

He gave her a small wan smile. "Thanks baa-san."

"You've been sleeping there for two days now so don't be surprised if you're a little stiff." She warned him gently. "Are you hungry?"

The blond opened his mouth to answer but a sudden loud rumble cut in, speaking for him. He grinned weakly, his cheeks turning a healthy shade of red at the sudden embarrassing noise. "Mmmm, yeah."

"I'll have some food set here for you, how does ramen sound?"

His eyes drooped a little as he smiled peacefully. "Good."

Tsunade nodded and rose from her chair and bent down to kiss Naruto's forehead, when she stood again she noticed that he had fallen back into sleep.

"So, how are you feeling?"

Itachi gazed up at Kakashi and watched as he made his way into the room to stand next to his bed. "I'm recovering." He said simply.

Kakashi nodded and smiled but slowly the smile faded and he regarded Itachi seriously. "What you did...Konoha can never repay you for making that sacrifice." His voice was low and filled with a mixture of emotions.

"You do what you need to, to get the job done...it's one of the core rules of the shinobi." Itachi reminded him quietly.

"I understand, at any rate it's the least we can do to allow you to stay here freely whenever you want to." The silver haired man.

Itachi nodded absently and they sank into a comfortable silence.

"It's been a long time since we last sat like this." Kakashi remarked absently. "Can I ask how Naruto was, when you started travelling?"

"Like Naruto."

Kakashi chuckled softly. "Nicely put. They're awake, by the way...at least a bit, they're in and out of sleep."

"Kakashi."

"Yeah?"

"Which one of them has it?"

"Sharingan?"

"Hn."

"So far as we can see neither of them do, but that could just be because it hasn't been activated yet." Kakashi informed him quietly. "Well, I'll leave you to rest, I still have to visit Naruto anyway."

Itachi nodded then watched as the other man left and let out a pained sigh as he let sleep reclaim him.

Kakashi blinked and froze in the doorway. He had caught sight of them as soon as he had opened the door and he was surprised to say the least. Somehow Kyuubi had managed to slip past the Anbu that were stationed outside of his room and had made it into Naruto's. The both of them were lying on the bed sleeping, one of Kyuubi's arms draped over Naruto in a unconscious show of possession.

He stood there for a moment just listening to their even breathing then slowly closed the door and made his way back down the hall whistling a nameless tune as he went.

One week later

Everything was calm again, Itachi, Naruto and Kyuubi were released back into the compound while the women who were there were split up and moved into two of the smaller houses in the compound, but not after Kyuubi agreed to let them go that far.

Kisame moved in with them as well but was found more often than not in the hot spring. Everything was fine, everyone was safe, everyone was happy.

At least on the surface.

"Naruto, please come out." Sakura called.

Every since moving back into his room in the Uchiha compound Naruto had locked himself in his room and refused to come out, what was worse though was that he had jammed the lock to prevent anyone from picking it and he had also moved various objects in front of the window to stop anyone from looking or getting into the room.. Kyuubi assured them that he was alive and pointed out that if he was dead it would be the same for him, he made it a point of reminding everyone of the fact that they were linked together. Hinata had come to visit with a get well gift for the blond nin on one such occasion and thoroughly surprised everyone when she turned on the demon and promptly told him 'fuck off, unlike Naruto-kun, you aren't wanted or loved, you have no place here.'.

It took them a while to recover from her sudden and uncharacteristic outburst but strangely enough it had a calming effect on the others, bringing out stories of the blond and how he used to do this or that, how he used to smile and how he never gave up. Kiba rather proudly recounted the tale of how Naruto had beaten him in during the chuunin test with a fart, inciting more tales of both Naruto's battle skills or lack thereof and how he always stuck by them and encouraged them to push themselves that little bit further that they needed to discover themselves.

"Haruno-san."

Sakura jumped as the voice cut through the silence and whirled about to confront the owner. "Hokage-sama!"

Tsunade took a step forward and nodded. "He still hasn't come out...give him a little more time, he's probably seen a lot of things that have upset him, he needs to sort out his own thoughts before he comes back to the rest of us. He will come back, I know it, he never gives up."

The pink haired teen nodded solemnly before bowing politely and making her way back to where Hinata, Kiba and Shikamaru were sitting leaving Tsunade alone in the hallway, staring at the door Naruto had hidden himself behind.

"He never gives up."

Naruto leaned against the wall next to his door and sighed.

"Never give up..." He repeated, his voice barely above a whisper.

His eyes slid down to is arms and hands, absently taking the fresh fingernail marks that nearly covered his entire arms. No matter what he did he couldn't shake the feeling that he had someone else's blood dripping from them, nor could he shake the things he saw from his mind, even in his sleep he was haunted by images of Kyuubi wearing his body and killing hundreds of innocent people for his amusement then raping Itachi and the women until the gave up the will to function like humans anymore, until they accepted it as their fate and simply allowed it to happen.

What cut him worse though was the fact that seven of those women that the Kyuubi had raped were now pregnant with children that in all reality were more his than Kyuubi's since he was only controlling Naruto's actions and he hadn't been able to stop any of it.

Three women now stood forcefully pregnant with children of Itachi while seven more were pregnant with his own.

Suddenly he felt the need to throw up and ran into the ensuite bathroom connected to his room, reaching the toilet just as his body violently rejected what little he still had in his stomach. Breathing harshly he flushed the toilet then turned to the wash basin and turned on the tap, cupping his hand to catch the water he carefully and thoroughly rinsed his mouth then grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste from the ledge above the basin and began to vigorously brush the taste out of his mouth.

Five minutes later he emerged from the bathroom and sank onto the edge of his bed, his shoulders slumped and his head in his hands.

"I'm not strong at all...I couldn't even protect It-chan..."

Tears began to well in his eyes and before long they were streaming down his face in angry torrents.

What did anything matter if he couldn't even protect the people he cared about?

****

Nooooooo Naru-chan!! smacks head into wall Why? Why must I be so evil? Why?!


	10. Dark Clouds

**KEY**: bold Italic dream

Italic thoughts

**Chapter 10**

Two days later

Sasuke sat staring up at the sky.

Dark clouds prevented the afternoon sky from being seen and stopped the suns light from shinning through to Konoha. People shuffled about in the streets, moving from here to there but to Sasuke they were as grey and lifeless as the world around them appeared to be.

He looked down at the note in his hands and reread it.

When you're ready your place here will welcome you back… 

_Maybe then, then sun will shine again._

_Uchiha Itachi_

It seemed almost surreal, ever since Naruto and his brother had returned, no even before, while Naruto was absent from Konoha the fine weather that had always made the village seem so peaceful was replaced but a much more foul weather pattern, it rained for days on end sometimes and the dark clouds above the sky seemed glued in place, it grew to such an extent that to see the sun was a rare event and would often become the talk of the village.

Something unidentifiable clawed at his heart as if he were afraid that the sun would never return or that it was his fault the sun was gone to begin with.

Years ago Naruto had risked his own life to keep him from Orochimaru and had done his best to beat some sense into him, sometimes he would lay awake at night just recalling their battles, trying to figure out how Naruto could have gained as much strength as he had, enough to attract his brothers attention at the very least.

His eyes slid down to the note again before he scrunched it up.

Sakura had come to see him a couple days ago and had told him what was going on, about Naruto's self appointed isolation from the rest of mankind, from the rest of the world, how the demon fox that the Yondaime had given his life to seal was now roaming around his home as if he were the master, how they were split in half by a forbidden jutsu to get Naruto back.

He scoffed mentally, it often seemed to him that almost everything around Naruto involved something forbidden.

"That moron."

Standing, he straightened his yukata and moved to the entrance of his tiny rented apartment and stepped into his sandals.

Taking one last look at the scrunched up ball of paper in his hand he threw it in the direction of the waste basket and left.

"You need to get some rest." Kakashi said, turning away from the window to regard the silent woman. "You can't help Naruto or even the ordinary people of Konoha if you're weak from exhaustion."

Tsunade turned her gaze away from the papers on her desk to regard Kakashi for a moment before turning back. "I have a job to do."

"How do you expect to do it when you're falling asleep every few minutes from exhaustion?" Jiraiya asked softly from his seat across from her.

She sighed and sank back into her chair. "I can't, I have to do something."

"Then sleep." Kakashi told her with a shrug. "Jiraiya can take care of the important things and I'll keep an eye on Naruto and the Kyuubi, so please get some rest."

Tsunade eyed the two for a moment before finally nodded and rising from her chair. "If anything happens…"

"We know."

Five minutes of continuous prodding finally saw Tsunade out of the room and on her way to her own rooms followed closely by her escort. Jiraiya huffed and raised one hand to rub the back of his neck. "Same as ever, she never knows when to quit."

"How long do you think it'll take for Naruto to recover?" Kakashi asked quietly.

The frog sennin shrugged. "It's up to him, you know him as well as I do, he doesn't take well to people getting needlessly hurt. How is the rest of his team taking it?"

"Hmmm, Sasuke is the same but Sakura…Itachi let the rookie group stay the night since they wanted to get closer to Naruto. Sakura came to me the next day exhausted because she spent the entire night listening to Naruto crying." Kakashi said solemnly.

"Not good, at this rate it won't take long for all of them to fall, not just team seven but their friends as well, you know better than I do how close they've become over the years."

"Hn."

They stood there in silence, their thoughts carrying them away from their surroundings until a knocking sound brought them both crashing back to the world. They blinked and exchanged a gaze then turned towards the door in unison.

"Yes?" Jiraiya called, a frown working its way onto his face.

The door opened to admit an armed Anbu who turned to them both then seeing no sign of the Hokage he turned to Jiraiya. "We thought you'd like to know that Uchiha Sasuke has returned home."

"Open up dobe!"

"Sasuke-kun please! Stop screaming, Naruto-kun needs his rest!" Hinata begged aimlessly.

It had been ten minutes since Sasuke had appeared, moving through the hallways, screaming for Naruto, he had finally come to a stop outside the room that had been set aside for the blond nin and had been standing in the self same spot screaming for him to open the door and come out.

Everyone else appeared to be absent but Sasuke could sense their chakras and knew they were close by. "Shit I'm sick of this." He spat then without further warning he began to gather his chakra around his hand.

"Sasuke-kun please stop!"

Suddenly the sound of a thousand birds filled the air then with a cry Sasuke blunged his fist into the door causing it to explode and send splintered bits of wood everywhere. Hinata let out a gasped cry and ducked for cover to avoid the larger bits of wood but unlike her Sasuke merely moved through the shower of splinters and into the room. Casting his eyes about he noted the dishevelled bed and the clothes that were haphazardly strewn across the room, the sound of running water reached his ears and he turned towards the sound and finding the bathroom door open he walked straight in.

A flash of bright yellow caught his eye and he turned toward it only to be rewarded by the sight of Naruto sitting at the bottom of the shower shivering, his hair plastered to his skin which now had a definite tinge of grey to it. His lips were a shade of blue almost deep enough to rival that of his eyes and his eyes were half lidded and appeared to stare into nowhere.

He heard a gasp from behind him and turned to see Hinata in the doorway, one hand clenched in a fist against her heart and the other covering her mouth as she stared in shock at the blond teen.

"Go get the Hokage."

Her eyes hesitated on Naruto for a moment then swung to him and she nodded curtly before turning and running out of the room and down the hall.

Sasuke moved to the taps and swiftly turned them off then grabbed the towel from the rack he swung it over his shoulder and moved towards the blond. Eerily Naruto put up no resistance as he was hauled out of the shower and into the bedroom, once there Sasuke started rubbing vigorously at Naruto's skin and hair, trying to dry him as much as possible before grabbing a yukata Naruto had discarded and quickly clothed him with it then turned and ripped the sheets and blankets from the bed and wrapped them around the both of them. He pressed himself against the blonds shivering form in and attempt to warm him with his body heat and growled in annoyance.

"You dumbass, are you trying to kill yourself or something?" He pressed angrily.

For the first time since Sasuke had come across him Naruto shifted himself just enough so he could look up at him and for a moment the raven haired teen found himself lost and drowning in the sheer amount of sadness and self-loathing that he found in the deep azure depths of the blonds eyes.

"Yes."

Tsunade and Jiraiya stood just outside the door, peering into the hospital room that seemed to become almost like a second home to Naruto. Four Anbu guards and a nurse were in his room at all times to make sure he didn't try to do himself further injury and to be ready just in case he somehow managed to do so.

He was kept on a fairly heavy dose of medication to keep him docile and to combat the severe case of pneumonia he had acquired from his near fatal attempt to end his own life and also to keep his chakra from dying out as his body struggled to heal itself.

"We need to find a way to bring his body heat up to normal otherwise he's going to be stuck like this indefinitely." Tsunade informed her old team mate glumly as she watch Naruto's sleeping form.

"What about a jutsu, is there any way of bringing his temperature up with a healing jutsu?"

Tsunade shook her head. "The raising and lowering of someone's body temperature wasn't really considered a problem you'd have to face if you went into battle, so no, to my knowledge there's no such ability."

"That's because you humans are stupid, you don't think ahead."

They turned as one, identical frowns adorning their faces to regard Kyuubi as he walked up behind them and stop just outside of arms reach to stare into the room at the slumbering boy.

"What are you doing here?" Tsunade asked sombrely.

"What you can't." He replied without the faintest hint of a smile.

Without saying anything else he pushed into the room and made his way to the bed only to have multiple weapons pressed against him from all sides.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jiraiya demanded gruffly, his eyes narrowed as he considered the threat the demon posed to the heavily drugged and defenceless teen he had come to care about so much.

Kyuubi's eyes narrowed in warning at their open display of hostility but shrugged. "If you kill me he dies, we're still linked together remember plus Kitsune and Kyuubi's are fire demons, we can change temperatures easily and I'm your best chance of getting the kit back to normal whether you like it or not."

Tsunade took a step forward. "How do I know you won't try to harm him or use him as a shield to get what you want?"

"Don't you listen to what people tell you, if I die so does he, the same goes for if he dies and I know that for the good of this village you would sacrifice one for the many, even if you did care for the person." He pointed out crossly then pushed the weapons in front of him behind and jumped up onto the bed next to Naruto and wriggled under the blankets before settling himself half on and half off of the blond and promptly closed his eyes.

Hmmmm, Kyuubi actually being protective? Could it be?….nah, we all know he's just doing it to save his own ass, lol.


	11. Creator

**KEY**: bold + Italic dream

Italic thoughts

Chapter 11

Five days later

"Missions are coming in a lot more frequent now so we'll be able to hire on a few more teachers for the academy sometime next month. We'll also be able to go ahead with the urban development project before summer, other then that I don't think there's much that needs to be brought up."

Jiraiya nodded then cocked his head to one side. "How is Naruto doing?"

"He's getting better, I think. His body temperature is fairly close to normal and his colouring has improved, but he still has an on and off fever so the doctors have to keep him on his medication." Tsunade said disdainfully, again and again she had visited Naruto since he had been hospitalised and stayed for hours on some occasions and often told Jiraiya how much she hated seeing the blond teen in such a state.

"What about the Kyuubi?"

Tsunade scowled at him then sighed. "It's a pain in the ass, but I suppose I should have expected that. He's helping Naruto at least so I suppose I should be grateful."

The white haired nin smirked slightly. "He's a demon, you can't really expect any less. What about the ladies?"

"His women? They're doing well, living in Konoha seems to suit them so far and despite their ordeal they're all in good health."

"Hn."

Tsunade turned to stare out the window at the dark sky and watched as lighting light up the village for a short moment before sending in back into the dark and gloomy state it had obtained since Naruto had first went missing. "How are the Uchiha boys?"

"They're not really talking to each other much but they're not trying to kill each other either, Itachi just seems content to sit and wait." Jiraiya said off-handily. "I'm a little concerned about the younger one, Sasuke, he seemed very impatient when I saw him the other day."

"Oh?"

"It's probably nothing, my guess is that he's waiting for Naruto to get well again."

A sudden cold chill washed over him, sending a shiver down his spine and filling him with a sudden anxiety he couldn't put into words. A second one racked his frame sending Kyuubi into a fit of shivering. His eyes jerked open and he sat up and peered around the room, seeing nothing but the usual nurse and Anbu guards his eyes came to a stop on Naruto.

The blonds eyes were open and instead of their deep azure colour they were ice blue, his skin was paler than it had been the last few days, almost the same shade it had been when he had first been hospitalised and his lips were faintly tinted blue.

The ice blue eyes shifted from where they rested on the ceiling to land on Kyuubi's face then held his blood red eyes.

The shivering he felt intensified and he could feel the temperature around him dropping dramatically to the point where he could see his breath as he exhaled. He heard shuffling behind him and knew the Anbu were starting to realise that something was amiss.

One pale hand rose from it's place beneath the blankets and lightly caressed Kyuubi's cheek. With a startled his he jumped back, launching himself off the bed to land on the floor and raised a hand to his cheek. It was numb and small pieces of ice were sticking to it.

Growling he roughly rubbed he ice from his cheek even as his body heat returned the feeling to his cheek and began to melt the ice. "Go fetch your Hokage."

The Anbu behind him hesitated before one of them quickly made a seal and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto tilted his head to one side then looked down at himself. After a few gentle touches he pushed the rest of the blankets away from him with one foot and slowly slid out of the narrow bed. Tilting his head to the other side he looked down at himself again then tapped at the wooden floor experimentally then began to move one foot in front of the other and slowly started to move around the room.

"Strange."

Kyuubi cocked his head to one side much like Naruto had seconds before as the blond spoke. Instead of his normal voice, it sounded like there were three or four Naruto's talking with only half a second between each of them and there was also a distinctive feminine quality to his voice.

"So this is what it means to walk."

"Who are you?" Kyuubi asked slowly, a frown making it's way across his face.

Naruto looked up and over towards him and smiled. "I have no name, do you have one?"

"They call me Kyuubi." He answered then took a step back as the blond started to take a step towards him. "You're a creature of ice, aren't you?"

"And you are fire, I apologise if I did you any harm."

The Anbu left behind him shuffled from foot to foot as they tried to decide the best course of action while obviously ensnared by the almost hypnotic melody that was Naruto's voice. Without warning there were several small explosions of smoke that quickly cleared to reveal Tsunade, Jiraiya and the Anbu that had left moments before to retrieve them.

"Naruto?" Tsunade asked tensely, quickly taking in the physical differences that the blond was now sporting.

"Wrong." Kyuubi muttered before taking a few more steps back to put Tsunade and Jiraiya between himself and the angel voiced blond.

"You speak of my master." He said quietly.

Jiraiya frowned. "You're master? You're the demon Naruto summoned on accident aren't you?"

The creature wearing Naruto's body blinked. "No, he did not summon me. He created me."

The hell! Now he's creating demons! What the hell's going on!…kinda feel sorry for Kyuubi now, there's someone in the world that's a direct opposite of him and if they stay in contact too long….they have lots of steamy sex…bows head in shame the entire thing. Anyway, please review and let me know what you thought and what you predict will happen, I always find that interesting for some reason.


	12. Comfort and Snow

Chapter 12

The creature wearing Naruto's body blinked. "No, he did not summon me. He created me."

"What do you mean? He created you, how?" Tsunade pressed, her eyes wide.

The ice creature blinked again. "I am not sure, one moment everything was dark and the next, I existed inside of him."

Jiraiya whistled in surprise then regarded the demon with a raised eyebrow. "You caused quite a lot of trouble you know."

The ice demon turned its eyes to the floor, a shamed expression visible on its face. "I am sorry, it was never my intention to cause any trouble or harm."

"You don't act like a demon." Tsunade pointed out quietly.

Kyuubi snorted. "That's because demons are raised to hate things as soon as their born, this one was created by the kit and probably had nothing to learn from except the things he saw, heard or what he felt the kit feel."

Jiraiya gazed over his shoulder at the fire demon and smirk. "So unlike you this one's got manners."

"He has whatever the kit has."

Jiraiya hung his head dejectedly. "In that case this one's probably a brat too."

Tsunade gave him a sharp elbow in the side then turned her attention to the other demon. "You can't leave Naruto's body can you?"

"No, the seal you used to bind my power when I came to be prevents me from leaving, it is because of this other demon, Kyuubi, leaving my masters body that I am able to come to the surface."

"I see, do you promise not to harm any of the villagers or this village in any way?"

"Of course, my master loves this place very much, I could not possibly hurt anyone."

Jiraiya frowned softly then moved to lean against the end of the hospital bed. "What if you're attacked?"

"This is my masters body, I will protect it with my life." The creature informed him simply as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"In that case I think it would be best if I moved you away from here. How would you feel about moving into the Uchiha compound?" Tsunade inquired, ignoring the sputtering sounds coming from the Kyuubi.

"It is my masters home and a suitable place to live."

"Fine, that's what we'll do then, you'll move into Naruto's room until we decide what to do with you." Tsunade decided casting a soft smile towards the peaceful demon before turning to Jiraiya. "Go let the rest know that they'll be having a visitor while I settle things here."

Jiraiya nodded then with a quick seal and a puff of smoke he was gone.

"You're serious about this aren't you?" Itachi asked quietly.

He was sitting half reclined in his bed. He had been judged fit to leave the hospital just over a week ago simply because he made the hospital staff uneasy and he wasn't deemed likely to die without a moments notice. He was however confined to his bedroom and mainly his bed because he still wasn't fit to walk on his own but more so because he didn't want to leave it.

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow as he regarded Itachi and nodded. "He'll be here as soon as Tsunade sorts a few things out."

"I see, do you have any idea how you're going to separate them?"

The sennin shrugged. "Probably the same way we separated Kyuubi and Naruto."

Itachi sighed and turned his gaze to the door just as Sasuke barged in. "Brother."

"Where is he?" The teen demanded, his breath coming out in ragged pants.

"Coming."

"When?"

Jiraiya sighed then moved towards Sasuke and grabbed him by his shoulder, spinning him around he pushed him back towards the door. "Now, so make yourself useful and make sure his room's ready."

Sasuke hesitated just long enough to glare at the older man and cast a glance behind him to where his brother was lounging then disappeared out the door and down the hallway.

With another sigh Jiraiya turned his focus back to Itachi. "What do you think?"

"My brother has accepted Naruto as his best friend, he's starting to realise what that means."

"I didn't say anything about that."

"You didn't have to, if Naruto manages to recover after all this they'll become like brothers." Itachi said, almost sourly.

The frog sennin nodded then looked around and blinked, noticing for the first time that Kisame was absent from the room. "Where's Kisame?"

"Out, he said he felt like a little excitement and that he was going to find out how many sins he could commit in the space of an hour." Itachi informed him with the barest of shrugs. "Now, would you mind leaving, I'm tired."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow then sighed and nodded before turning and leaving the room.

For several hours after the blond nin had returned and after Kisame had reappeared he sat in that same place in the middle of his bed, his knees curled up to his chest and his arms brought up in front of his face. He lay like that for hours, not sleeping but simply listening to the sound of rain hitting the roof and letting his mind wander over the events of the past three months.

It still shook him, haunted him in his dreams. Being torn apart and having his pride ripped from him but knowing he was powerless to stop it. It wasn't a position he ever thought he'd be in, let alone for the sake of someone else. Moving one hand he traced along his collar bone, stopping when his fingers brushed against a slight rise. It was a scar that had been left behind intentionally by Kyuubi, bitten and scarred so he would remember who owned him.

As if he could possibly forget.

He had trained his entire life to become stronger than the rest, he still did, but in the end it still wasn't enough. He had allowed the boy to become close, had let his heart thaw and now he had paid the price.

The hand traced further down to the various cuts and bruises that were slowly healing. That one last time Kyuubi had been especially rough, as if he knew what was going to happen and was dealing out punishment early.

His thoughts turned then, away from the demon who had abused him to the boy who had accepted him even after all he had done to him.

"Does it hurt?"

His eyes flew wide open and he spun around in his bed to face the door. The ice demon stood there regarding him curiously. He merely stared at the demon in shock, it was true that his mind had been elsewhere but he still should have sensed something from the demon, but here it was standing in his room with his back to the closed door which he hadn't even heard open in the first place.

"Are you hurt?" It asked again then when it didn't receive an answer it moved into the room and climbed up onto the big bed and crawled its way up to Itachi and nuzzled his cheek. "It is alright, I will not hurt you. You must be lonely on your own, I will keep you company."

"That's…" He started but ended up at a loss for words as the demon moved up just enough to wriggles its legs under the blankets and lay down beside him.

"Do not be sad." It whispered in his ear and wrapped one arm around him.

He lay there entwined in the blonds arms, thinking of it as Naruto but knowing it wasn't him, that it was only the body of the boy he had become friends with. They lay there for what seemed like hours until finally his eyelids began to droop and he began to sink into sleep. Just before reaching it though he heard his door open and someone walk in.

"So you're here."

Sasuke.

"He was lonely, I am keeping him company."

"I told you not to leave me."

"But he was sad."

"Hn."

The bed drooped behind him where the demon was lying and the blankets lifted for a moment.

"Now we can all be happy."

They lay like that in the bed and fell asleep, Itachi curled up and facing away from the door, the ice demon behind him and holding him and Sasuke laying behind him one arm draped over his waist in a protective fashion. Each was protecting the last and keeping them warm and secure.

Each was acknowledging the other, accepting and cherishing the others company.

They slept all through the night and into the next day and instead of suffering from nightmares each of the dreamed a dream so sweat that when they awoke they couldn't help but smile at the memory and warmth the dream left them with.

The next day

Tsunade sighed. "Alright, to separate you from Naruto we've decided to use the ability we used to separate Kyuubi and Naruto, but for that jutsu to work we need to at least partially release the seal that's holding you in his body."

"I understand."

"The seal won't be completely destroyed because a demon, even a polite one, can't be allowed to run free, so please understand that this isn't because we think of you as a threat."

The ice creature smiled sweetly. "I understand."

Tsunade nodded. "Good, now please sit over there and we'll begin." She instructed calmly, pointing to an area in the centre of the room.

When he was seated on the floor Kakashi stood and rubbed his head before making his way over to the demon. "I'm not being paid enough for this." He muttered under his breath then kneeled down in front of the blond.

He began to mold his chakra then quickly made a few complicated seals with his hands then touched the centre of the blond nins forehead with his index finger. Slowly the red marking that formed the seal over Naruto's body began to drain away, turning back on itself then a writhing mass of blood red figures appeared across the pale skin. Kakashi slowly moved his finger away from Naruto's forehead the in between his shoulder blades and stopped, chakra flared around his hand once before dying out and he released a sigh before going to work on the next jutsu. A few quick seals were performed then he muttered something underneath his breath.

His chakra whirled to life in his hands and he moved them both up to either side of the blonds head and gently took hold of it. After a second of silence the blond suddenly gasped and fell backwards, his body convulsing. Slowly but surely his body began to split apart and soon two bodies lay gasping on the floor.

Naruto looked like normal, his lightly tanned skin free of any marks or scars apart for the fox whiskers that constantly adorned his cheeks, his eyes, which were wide open and staring at the ceiling were his normal azure and his lips had returned to their healthy pale pink tone.

Laying next to Naruto and already unconscious was the other form. The ice demon's body was slim but most definitely naked revealing the fact that so far as they could see, the demon was genderless. It was slim but well formed at the same time. Its skin was pale and its hair white with the barest hints of blue around the roots. Its lips were full and also a faint shade of blue.

They called it Yuki.

Firstly, thank you everyone for your patience and for you continued reviews, they do boost my day and help me see that my work is appreciated. I' m sorry for the long hiatus but things have been rather hectic for a while over here and hopefully now things are starting to settle down a bit I can get back to writing and submitting my fics regularly.

Well…that was interesting. Everyone's getting all happy and sappy….you just know something's going to come along and spoil it for everyone. I'm a little curious to see how Naruto will react to having two demons running along behind him to make sure he stays alive….. this is gonna be fun! Please R&R! I'm dying for comments!


	13. Finding Ground

**Chapter 13**

Nearly 2 weeks later

It had taken several days but things slowly began to settle, Konoha was back to normal, none the wiser about the dangerous goings on that had caused its evacuation and return that had simply been explained as a 'drill'. Under constant supervision even Naruto himself had begun to leave some of his depression behind, especially once he had reunited with Itachi and the Uchiha himself had assured the blond nin that he held no ill will towards him after what had happened.

The two demons were surprisingly quiet, well, that was to say that Yuki was quiet but persistent, attempting to follow everyone around and observe to learn or to act as a companion when it thought someone needed one, even if that someone happened to be the Kyuubi which automatically reversed any form of silence in the area they happened to be in and instead the nine tails angry voice filled the air with profanities and objections so loud and furious they drove the birds themselves from their trees…but apart from that, things had settled into a quiet, almost comfortable setting.

Thinking back over the past week as he observed the blond and his elder sibling Sasuke considered the changes that had gone on, both to himself and his now-not-so-lacking social life, now it was almost like the old days, when he was still a child before he had been robbed of his 'normal' family life, there were people in the compound, friends, family and despite his distaste for the way in which it had happened, in a few short months he was going to become an uncle, the Uchiha clan was no longer in emanate danger of becoming extinct and although there were still several barriers between Itachi and himself he knew he could feel a warmth growing between them from their common interest in Naruto.

Eyes turning to the blond he watched as he talked quietly, subdued still but slowly returning to his former self, although he doubted he would ever be the same again although he had quickly become severely protective of the older Uchiha after their ordeal, something that although he understood the reasoning for, he couldn't help but feel jealous over. Hearing the door slowly slide open he retched his eyes away from the pair and instead turned to the door in time to see Kakashi slip through and close it behind him.

"Yo." The silver haired nin greeted his one time student, his uncovered eye flicking to the quiet two on the other side of the garden then back. "I don't suppose you've seen the Kyuubi?" He asked softly, too low to be heard by the two sitting in the garden.

Scowling slightly the younger shinobi shook his head sharply. "He hasn't shown his face here much for the past week, he comes, watches them for a while from the roof then leaves again."

At that Kakashi blinked, his dark gaze lingering on the odd pair in the garden once more. "He just watches? He hasn't tried to approach them at all?" He asked in surprise.

"He did once but…Naruto…threatened he'd kill himself if he hurt Itachi again." He murmured, a bitter note making itself known in the younger males voice.

"Hmm, I suppose a threat to Naruto's life is still a threat to his own, even if they are in separate bodies." Kakashi replied, then shifted as he changed the topic. "The Hokage wants to see Naruto and the two demons but since I can't seem to find the Kyuubi it will have to be Naruto and Yuki, more questions about creating demons.." He added with a tired sigh before he shifted and moved to head over towards the two in the garden, chatting softly for a moment before Naruto hesitantly rose and followed his old teacher with leaps and bounds out of the compound, Yuki following seconds behind them, leaving Sasuke to wonder where the ice demon had come from since he had not seen it for several hours.

Red eyes gleamed as their owner watched the retreating figures moving quickly away from the compound that had become both home and prison to him. Shifting, Kyuubi lowered himself from his hiding place on the roof, letting before himself drop to fall to the ground. He had been spending most of his time since the unfortunate spat between himself and the blond 'warden' that kept him from enjoying himself as he saw fit, keeping to the company of the woman he had acquired from passing villages on his way back to Konoha with Itachi.

Glancing back at the two decent sized houses behind him, pleased with himself with what he had accomplished, one clan was no longer all but extinct and another would be born in a few short months.

Heading towards the main building he listened intently to the soft movement of people moving, his slightly pointed ears twitching ever so slightly as the sound of familiar feet reached his ears and grinning, he set out to follow them.

Aware that he was being followed Itachi slowed his pace slightly before entering into his room, taking only a moment to recognize whom it was and simply sighed and left the door slightly open as he moved to seat himself on his bed to relax as he had planned to do while waiting for his blond friends return since Kisame was also nowhere to be seen that day and his own brother hardly seem in the mood to chat and since he simply felt like doing nothing else, a nap had seemed like the perfect answer.

The soft almost padding footsteps drew closer and another sigh left the tired nin as he closed his eyes and simply waited.

Sliding the door open a little more Kyuubi slipped inside and slid the door closed behind him before merely standing in his spot, admiring the sight of his one time pet in such a relaxed and at ease state of being, unlike the many other times they had been alone together or in the company of Kyuubi's female pets.

"They grow well…your children." He said simply as he shifted to move further into the room, almost circling the bed as he watched the other.

"Sasuke will make a good uncle for them."

"That's all you have to say?"

"What else is there?"

"You don't want to see for yourself?"

Opening his onyx eyes Itachi regarded the fox demon, his expression reflecting both his boredom and how tired he felt, even if he kept the feelings from his one nigh constant companion apart from Kisame. "I've seen enough."

Smirking Kyuubi shifted again, this time advancing towards the bed, climbing up onto it to close the distance between them. "Regrets? Strange that you of all people should have those after the glorious things you've done."

"Hardly glorious." Itachi responded shortly, a frown touching his features as he felt his body begin to respond conditionally to the demons closeness.

Shrugging slightly as he moved closer, sensing the rise in the others body heat he grinned and breathed in deeply of the air around them. "Ahh…it's nice to see that after this long your body at least still remembers." He purred as he leaned closer, his cheek lightly brushing against the darker haired male as he bowed his head to bring his lips closer to the others ear. "…the pleasure I can give…with this mouth…these hands…." He whispered, using little movements for emphasis, letting his lips brush against the edge of the others ear and one clawed finger lightly trail along one pale arm, delighting at the slight shudder than came from the object of his attention.

It was then he felt something cool, solid and rather pointed being placed against his groin and Kyuubi grinned, although this time there was a hint of malice in it as he slowly backed himself up.

Glaring across at the fox demon through narrowed sharingan eyes Itachi pushed himself to sit up a little, his pale hand flexing around the kunai he held near the others groin. "For Naruto's sake and future investments I won't kill you, but that doesn't mean that I won't make the rest of your pathetic life miserable and make sure you can't 'mate' with anything for the rest of it." He snarled softly, pushing himself up further and forcing the demon back. "I put up for you for as long as I needed, now there isn't any need and I have no reason to hesitate if you so much as annoy me again."

Snarling softly Kyuubi pushed himself back before nimbly leaping from the bed, his crimson eyes blazing as he stared across at the other. "I blocked you off once before for disobeying me, I can easily do it again, as I recall you weren't quite so spirited when you didn't have the chakra to perform your little tricks, hmm?" The nine tails purred, malice and something unnamable lingering in his voice as he straightened and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You would have to get close enough first."

"Well…let's see how well you've 'recovered' then…"

Meanwhile

"Hatake-san?"

Shifting slightly Kakashi turned his head to gaze behind him before smiling slightly, despite knowing the gesture would be hidden by his mask. "Iruka-sensei, I thought we had decided that you would call me by my name from now on." He reminded the other in an amused tone.

Coughing slightly to hide his embarrassment, Iruka came to a stop near the taller nin and shifted the scrolls in his arms so that he could stand comfortably. "I'm sorry, it takes some getting used to, although I suppose it doesn't help when things are so chaotic we don't get much time to talk." He said softly before gazing past the other towards the doorway they were standing near. "Is Godaime-sama busy?"

"Talking to Naruto and Yuki again."

"Ah, I suppose these progress reports can wait then." Iruka sighed, glancing down at his armload with mild regret before offering the copy nin a small smile. "I suppose I'll just have to come back later.."

Eyeing the smaller male the wheels started to move a little faster in Kakashi's mind and the corners of his lips turned up slightly as he straightened, pushing himself up and away from the wall. "The I guess you have time to have lunch with me. How does Ichiraku sound?"

Blinking in surprise Iruka gazed up at the older nin in partial confusion. "Lunch…?" He murmured softly, shifting the bundle of reports he held, his eyes lowering to stare blankly at the ties that kept them shut. "I wouldn't want to waste your time, I'm sure you could find much more interesting company than me…"

"Nonsense." Kakashi said simply, reaching out to take the reports from the other and depositing them on the desk beside the door, offering a slight smile to the clerk that was working at it before turning, his hands back in his pockets. "I heard that they have a new dish and as Naruto's friends and teachers we must of course have solid knowledge of a subject before out student launches himself at it, wouldn't you agree?"

Gazing at the taller nin for a moment a wry laugh escaped Iruka as he caved in, a smile on his face even as he shook his head. "You're incorrigible, I'm not sure who's worse, you or Naruto." He chided softly as he turned to walk side by side with the other.

Kakashi just grinned.

AN: Boy it's been a while since I last updated " so a big sorry for everyone that's been patiently waiting for the next chapter along, there's been a bit of an uphill battle on my side of things but things are looking up now that I'm up the top of the hill, so here's hoping I don't roll back down again….never mind the fact I'm horrible with heights OO"…………………..ONTO THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!!!!!!


	14. Of Anger and Redemption

Chapter 14

Growling viciously Kyuubi picked himself off the ground, dusting the bits of dust and splinters of wood down off of his borrowed yukata, glaring across the distance and through the whole in the wall he had just made after being punched with enough force to send him clear through it, despite the fact that it was just under two feet thick. On the other side Naruto stood glaring down at him from Itachi's bedroom while the Uchiha himself stood behind the blond, staring down at the irate demon with detached interest.

Moments before Naruto had returned to collect Itachi so the older nin could give the council a more thorough account of the transition from normal Naruto to the possessed state when the seal binding Kyuubi had began failing and to say the scene that had greeted him when he had slid Itachi's door open had been not to his liking was quite an understatement.

"I told you not to touch him!" The blond enigma roared as he stepped through the hole he had helped to create in the wall to land softly in the grass before he closed the distance between himself and the demon that had been his unwilling tenant for his seventeen years of life.

"Actually you told me not to hurt him and I was far from hurting him, kit." The Kyuubi returned, his tone mocking and a leer across his lips as he watched the teens approached with amusement, even as he turned his head to spit the blood that had been trickling into his mouth from the split lip he had gained.

As he expected another fist was launched in his direction and his own hand flashed up to ensnare it in a vice grip as he glared into angry azure eyes. "He's mine kit, do you really think your empty threats and this human shell is enough to keep me from having what's rightfully mine?" He taunted before his crimson eyes narrowed as the blond slowly and deliberately withdrew a kunai from his holster without taking his eyes of the demon before him.

"Did you really think it was empty?" Naruto asked softly, his voice calm and serious compared to raging eyes as he brought the kunai up to his own neck and pressed it firmly enough to break the skin and cause a small trickle of blood to spill it's way down his neck and under the casual clothes he wore.

"That's enough!"

Turning his eyes away from the scene Itachi regarded Tsunade as she stormed across the open ground towards the two he had previously been watching who seemed reluctant to take their eyes off each other lest the other make a move. Finally close enough to catch sight of the blood trail down the blonds neck Tsunade's frown deepened, her angry gaze flickering to Itachi, watching the male shrug and move further back into his room as if the events had nothing to do with him before her green gaze turned back to the other two males who had not moved from their position. "I said enough!" She growled out, one arm swinging out to swat Kyuubi away while she reached out and pulled the kunai from Naruto's hand and toss it aside before her other hand landed across the blonds cheek in a resounding slap that was greeted with a shocked silence. "How dare you threaten to take away something so many of us have given up so much to keep safe! How many of your fellow shinobi have died in the past few years to make sure you lived long enough to see your dream happen, shinobi who have literally given their lives for you and acknowledge you the way you've always wanted and now you spit on them and their sacrifice!" She screamed, her voice reverberating with emotion. "Do you want to leave here that badly that you'd spit on every good thing that's happened for you, on all the people that want nothing more than to be your friend and fight by your side and…."

Shocked into silence the hokage watched with conflicting emotions as a deep depression that had been covered up but a neutral mask until now made its way to the surface and tears spilled down from blue eyes filled with such pain that it was almost painful to look at, that were so hurt that she was tempted to turn away just so she wouldn't see them anymore. "…how can I live and dream when everyone I get close to gets hurt or dies…?"

For a moment Tsunade remained silent before she reached out and drew the blond to her, wrapping her arms around him as if to shelter him to the injustices in the world, absently noting that he had gone through another growth spurt and was now taller than she was which made the embrace slightly awkward. "By having faith in the power of others, gaki…you might be getting stronger and stronger but that doesn't mean the rest of us are getting weaker, believe it or not we can take care of ourselves most of the time…but where would we be if we didn't have you there to protect us when we needed it? I hate to tell you this but you've saved most of us more times than we can count, even from ourselves…myself included, many of us wouldn't be alive now if it wasn't for you and that unending stubbornness of yours." She paused for a moment as her fingers tangled slightly in the blonds now long locks. "Besides, you're going to be a father in a couple of months, do you really want to let your children grow up without knowing their father…you might not have had the choice but don't give your children the same choices that you had as a child, just because they'll have siblings doesn't mean they won't need a father to love them and does the furball really seem like the loving sort to you?" She asked pointedly, raising a hand to lift the teens chin so that she could see his face, raising a fine eyebrow of her own to emphasize her point.

Despite himself Naruto let himself be calmed by the other almost motherly behaviour before a very small hint of a smile touched his lips, even if it didn't quite reach his eyes yet. "Not really…" He murmured in agreement, pushing his mind away from the pain of the past to instead focus on the fact he had been trying to avoid since he had regained awareness and control over his body, that, despite the fact he had not been in control it had been his body that had sired the children and therefore he had a responsibility to not only the children that would be born but to their mothers as well, whose lives had been irreversibly altered thanks to the Kyuubi. Taking a deep breath he steadied himself and offered the older woman a slightly stronger smile as he gained control of himself once more. "Thanks baa-chan…I'm sorry I worried you."

Sighing softly Tsunade released the blond and stepped back, keeping him at arms length. "You need to eat more, I can feel just about every bone in your body, how about we finish with the other old geezers and then I'll see about stopping by Ichiraku for some lunch?"

As if by magic Naruto's expression brightened and he nodded quickly before moving to clean himself up since there was no point looking forward to ramen if he bled out while listening to the old farts in the council drone on and on and on about stuff he was pretty sure no one actually cared about except them because they had nothing better to do than to nitpick at nothing.

Watching the blond quickly move back into the house he had been occupying, a small pleased smile touching her lips, Tsunade gave thanks to whatever gods were watching that some things about the teen refused to change that even though Naruto was tempted to give up at times there was always something that would always lighten his mood, even something so small and simple, though perhaps it made more sense, that it was something simple that effected him in such a way, after all there was a kind of poetic balance to the way the blond worked, though it took very dark and depressing things to unhinge him it only to something small and something that would usually be overlooked by everyone else to get him back on track.

Shaking her head Tsunade brought her mind back to watch had originally brought about the scenic rollercoaster of emotions and turned, gazing towards the spot the Kyuubi had been sitting but found that he had vacated the immediate area at some point during the emotional hiccups that seemed to come from his host on and off since he had returned to Konoha. "…not surprised.." She murmured to herself as her green gaze flickered towards Itachi's bedroom before turning to head into the house, intent on keeping a closer eye on Naruto at least until she could be sure he had recovered from his latest episode.

3 months later…

"Kill me."

An evil chuckle rose to meet the groaned words as Kakashi stared down at the young blond. Naruto had made a drastic and slightly dramatic recovery from his bouts of depression after returning to Konoha, he had been surrounded by his friends and after a time treated no differently that he had always been and somehow that seemed to have been the key to bringing back the blonds stubborn fighting spirit…that and a small fortune in ramen. Over the past few months Naruto had also taken a more active role in things around him, in the women that Kyuubi had picked up from various villages, taking his time to get to know and become friends with each of them and resuming missions to earn a living, determined to take care of them and his soon to arrive children, despite Tsunade's assurances that Konoha would take care of them.

It had been almost exactly two weeks now since the first of the little ones had been born and much to the relief of everyone the twin boys appeared to be perfectly healthy and normal, free from and qualities they had initially been worried about from Kyuubi's influence and not surprisingly Naruto had been trying his utmost to be there with them every second of everyday, taking missions that he would usually refuse as they would keep him close to home and the two tiny blond haired boys that he would hold for hours on end as they slept.

Which brought them to the current 'ciris'.

"Mah….you know I hate to tell you things like 'told you so' but…" Kakashi offered, lifting his gloved hands and shaking his head in a show of helplessness.

One cobalt blue eye opened to cast a withering glare at the silver haired jounin before the young father pushed himself to sit up rather than continuing to lay sprawled out over Iruka's couch as he had been. "Ero-sensei…." He grumbled tiredly before giving up on his attempts to glare the highly amused expression from his old teachers masked face.

Shifting from his position leaning against the doorway between his living area and kitchen, Iruka sighed softly. "You know Naruto, we keep telling you, you need to slow down and stop exhausting yourself like this otherwise you won't be much good to your children when they really need you."

"And you'd have enough brain power to think up some decent names for the kids." Kakashi shot in absently.

Blinking Naruto straightened, his expression becoming one of annoyance. "I still say there's nothing wrong with Udon and Ramen for boys."

Raising a hand to rub lightly along his scar, Iruka sighed tiredly. "Naruto you can't call your children after food."

"Eh?"

Trust Naruto to remind them that some things never change.

Thus ends another amusing chapter of days of Naruto's life. "

I know a lot of people were looking at this and reading the later chapters and going 'oooh, massive ooc..' but the way I look at it Naruto's just like anyone else, a little slower at times but just like the rest of us and just like us he needed time to work through the things that had happened then finally decide in true Naruto fashion 'Fuck this, time to get on with the show….Sakura-chan? Ack Sak—ura-chan….can't….breath…' death by hugs and so on.

In true Naruto fashion his life goes on and he adapts and uses the experiences he gets to make himself stronger, even if he doesn't set out to do things like that, it's naruto…some stuff just works out, who knows how but it does and thus lies the power of the writer…or naruto, take your pick.

Anyway, please give me a review, even if it's only 'POST MOAR!!!", it let's me know that people are actually reading my stuff and wanting to see more or alternatively let me know that I suck and therefore must rage quit at something…make it jumping up and down on the spot, gets repetitive after a while…. "


End file.
